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New Delhi – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched a 120-tonne ‘mini rocket’ aimed at reducing the cost of satellite launches and promoting their use on a commercial scale.
“The third developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) was successful,” ISRO said in a statement.
In addition to the launch, the mission’s goal also included placing a satellite into orbit, which was also successfully positioned, the space agency reported.
ISRO chief S. Somanath said that with this launch, ISRO has completed the development of the mini rocket and opened the door for its use in commercial missions.
“With the third flight of the SSLV, we can declare that the development process is complete. We are transferring the technology to industry for serial production and launching the SSLV on a commercial scale,” he said.
According to technical data released by ISRO, the spacecraft is 34 meters long, 2 meters in diameter and has a takeoff mass of approximately 120 tons.
In comparison, the LVM3 rocket that launched the Chandrayaan-3 probe to the Moon had a liftoff mass of 640 tonnes, a height of 43.5 metres and a diameter of four metres.
The SSLV can carry satellites weighing up to 500 kg into a flat orbit at 500 km.
The Indian government decided to open the country’s space sector to the private sector in 2020, with the Asian country’s first privately developed rocket scheduled to fly in 2022.
India has one of the most active space programmes in the world, having started sending satellites into Earth orbit in 1999.
Its lunar and Mars missions, as well as its economical way of launching dozens of satellites simultaneously, have prompted many countries to choose this Asian country to send their small devices into orbit.
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