The Satish Dhawan Space Centre is soon going to launch a commercial satellite from India. The uniqueness about the launch is it would carry the image of Prime Minister of India and name of the Bhagwad Gita, a religious book of Hindus.
Sending satellites with the names of people is not something new, but a tradition followed by foreign agencies. However, in India, it would be the first time, when a space satellite would be sent with the name of the Bhagwad Gita and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s image.
Besides the image of Mr. Modi and the name of the Bhagwad Gita, the space satellite would also have 25 thousand Indian people’s names (especially students.)
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) would launch this satellite with two other private satellites from its reliable polar satellite launch vehicle the ‘PSLV C-51.’
Rifat Shahrukh, the Chief Technical Officer of SpaceKidz, a Chennai based company, said the space satellite would have an additional chip, which would be installed in this 3.5 kg nano satellite.
The nano satellite would carry three scientific payloads, one to study space radiation, one to study the magnetosphere, and another that will demonstrate a low-power wide-area communication network.
Dr. Srimathy Kesan, the Founder and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SpaceKids India, said, “There is a lot of excitement in all of us right now. This will be our first satellite to be deployed in space. When we finalized the mission, we asked people to send names that would be sent to space. And, within a week we got 25 thousand entries. 1,000 of these names were sent by people from outside India. We decided to do so because this mission would promote people’s interest in space science. Those whose names will be sent will also be given a “boarding pass.”
The space satellite would be launched from the Sriharikota of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at 10: 23 A.M., on the 28th of February.
This would be the first Commercial satellite launch under the Department of Space.
