ISRO said on Saturday that the 24-hour countdown for the launch of the over 4,000 kg communication satellite CMS-03 began at the spaceport on Saturday.
Weighing around 4,410 kg, CMS-03 will be the heaviest satellite ever launched from Indian soil into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), the space agency said. The satellite will be carried by the LVM3-M5 rocket, popularly known as ‘Bahubali’ for its heavy lift capability.
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ISRO said the launch vehicle was fully assembled and integrated with the spacecraft and was moved to the second launch pad to undergo final preparations before launch.
Here is what ISRO said
Later, in a post on social media, ISRO said, “Countdown begins! Final preparations complete and countdown for LVM3-M5 (mission) has officially begun at the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota.”
“All systems are GO as we approach launch,” the space agency said in an update. The 43.5-meter-tall rocket is scheduled to launch on November 2 at 5:26 p.m. LVM3- (Launch Vehicle Mark-3) is ISRO’s new heavy lift launch vehicle and is used to place 4000 kg spacecraft into GTO in a cost effective manner, ISRO said.
This three-stage launch vehicle with two solid engine straps (S200), a liquid fuel core (L110) and a cryogenic stage (C25) provides ISRO with full self-sufficiency in launching heavier communication satellites weighing up to 4,000 kg in GTO. LVM3- is also called as Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) MkIII.
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According to ISRO, LVM3-M5 is the fifth operational flight. The LVM3 vehicle was developed using completely original technologies, including the C25 cryogenic grade. It has a record of all successful launches, including since the first development flight, the LVM-3 Crew Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) module launched in December 2014.
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It is pertinent to mention that for the ambitious mission, Gaganyaan has been planned by ISRO as a human rated LVM3 launch vehicle which is named as HRLV.
The space agency had previously launched its heaviest communications satellite, GSAT-11, on December 5, 2018, from the Kourou base in French Guiana on an Ariane-5 VA-246 rocket. Weighing about 5,854 kg, GSAT-11 is the heaviest satellite built by ISRO.
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ISRO said Sunday’s mission aims to deploy CMS-03, a multi-band communications satellite designed to provide services in a wide oceanic region, including the Indian mainland.
Equipped with a powerful cryogenic upper stage, the LVM3 rocket can carry payloads of up to 4,000 kg to Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) and 8,000 kg to Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
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For launch, the rocket relies on two fixed S200 boosters mounted on its flanks, developed at the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center in Thiruvananthapuram. Its third stage, the L110 liquid stage, is powered by two Vikas engines designed and developed at the Center for Liquid Propulsion Systems.
The LVM-3 rocket’s previous mission was the successful launch of the Chandrayaan-3 mission, where India became the first country to successfully land near the moon’s south pole in 2023.
