Microsat-R was claimed to be an experimental imaging satellite manufactured by
DRDO
The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) is an agency under the Department of Defence Research and Development in the Ministry of Defence of the Government of India, charged with the military's research and development, headqu ...
and launched by
Indian Space Research Organisation
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...
on 24 January 2019 for military use.
The satellite served as a target for an
anti-satellite test on 27 March, 2019.
Launch
Microsat-R, along with KalamsatV2 as piggy-back, was launched on 24 January 2019 at 23:37 hrs from
First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The launch marks the 46th flight of
PSLV
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite ...
. After 13 minutes 26 seconds in flight, Microsat-R was injected at targeted altitude of about 277.2 km. This was the first flight of a new variant of PSLV called PSLV-DL with two strap-ons, each carrying 12.2-tonne of solid propellant.
Anti-satellite test
Microsat-R served as target for
Indian ASAT experiment on March 27, 2019. The impact generated more than 400 pieces of orbital debris with 24 having apogee higher than
ISS orbit. According to initial assessment by DRDO some of the debris (depending on size and trajectory) should re-enter in 45 days. A spokesperson from
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
disagreed, saying the debris could last for years because the
solar minimum had contracted the atmosphere that would otherwise cause the debris to reenter. Analysis from a leading space trajectory and environment simulation company AGI has also came to same conclusion that few debris fragments will take more than a year to come down and other debris fragments might pose a risk to other satellites and ISS and these results were also presented in the 35th Space Symposium at Colorado Springs.
As of March 2022, only one catalogued piece of debris from Microsat-R remained in orbit: COSPAR 2019-006DE, SATCAT 44383. This final piece decayed from orbit 14 June 2022.
See also
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Microsat (ISRO)
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Kosmos 149
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Kosmos 320
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SLATS
Super Low Altitude Test Satellite (SLATS) or Tsubame was a JAXA satellite intended to demonstrate operations in very low Earth orbit (VLEO, below 200 km), using ion engines to counteract aerodynamic drag (physics), drag from the atmosphere ...
References
External links
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{{Orbital launches in 2019
Earth observation satellites of India
Spacecraft launched by India in 2019
Spacecraft launched by PSLV rockets
January 2019 in India
Intentionally destroyed artificial satellites
Military equipment introduced in the 2010s
Satellite collisions