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Bengaluru/Sriharikota:The first developmental flight SSLV-D1/EOS-02 Mission was launched on Sunday 7 August 2022 at 09:18 am (IST) from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota and after all the stages had performed normal, there was a big setback as the two satellites on board – EOS-02 and AzaadiSAT – after they were injected were declared unstable when it was detected that the orbit achieved was less than expected.

SSLV-D1/EOS-02 Mission update: SSLV-D1 placed the satellites into 356 km x 76 km elliptical orbit instead of 356 km circular orbit. Satellites are no longer usable. The issue is reasonably identified. Failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for a salvage action caused the deviation. A committee would analyse and recommend. With the implementation of the recommendations, ISRO will come back soon with SSLV-D2. – ISRO

ISRO has developed the small satellite launch vehicle (SSLV) to cater to the launch of up to 500 kg satellites to Low Earth Orbits on ‘launch-on-demand’ basis. SSLV is configured with three solid stages 87 t, 7.7 t and 4.5 t. The satellite insertion into the intended orbit is achieved through a liquid propulsion-based velocity trimming module. SSLV is capable of launching Mini, Micro, or Nanosatellites (10 to 500 kg mass) to a 500 km planar orbit. SSLV is aimed at providing low-cost access to Space on demand basis. It offers low turn-around time, flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, launch-on-demand feasibility, minimal launch infrastructure requirements, etc. SSLV-D1 is a 34 m tall, 2 m diameter vehicle having a lift-off mass of 120 t.

EOS-02 is an earth observation satellite designed and realised by ISRO. This microsat series satellite offers advanced optical remote sensing operating in infra-red band with high spatial resolution. The bus configuration is derived from IMS-1 bus.

AzaadiSAT is a 8U Cubesat weighing around 8 kg. It carries 75 different payloads each weighing around 50 grams and conducting femto-experiments. Girl students from rural regions across the country were provided guidance to build these payloads that were integrated by the student team of “Space Kidz India”. The payloads included a UHF-VHF Transponder working in ham radio frequency to enable voice and data transmission for amateur radio operators, a solid state PIN diode-based Radiation counter to measure the ionising radiation in its orbit, a long-range transponder and a selfie camera. The ground system developed by ‘Space Kidz India’ was meant to be utilised for receiving the data from this satellite.