ISRO’s New Year Mission: XPoSat to Explore the Enigmatic Black Hole Emissions
PSLV-C58 lifted off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.10am. Around 22 minutes after liftoff, the rocket placed XPoSat in an eastward low inclination 650km orbit.
After injection of XPoSat, the PS4 stage was restarted twice to reduce the orbit into 350km circular orbit to maintain a stabilised mode for orbital platform experiments. The PSLV orbital experimental module-3 (POEM-3) experiment was executed, meeting the objective of 10 identified payloads supplied by Isro and InSpace.
The launch was PSLV’s 60th flight and fourth flight of PSLV with DL variant.
XPoSat
XPoSat (X-ray polarimeter satellite), weighing 469kg, carries two payloads – Polix (polarimeter instrument in X-rays) and Xspect (X-ray spectroscopy and timing). Polix is realised by Raman Research Institute and Xspect by Space Astronomy Group of URSC.
Isro says the objective of the mission is to measure (degree and angle) polarisation of X-rays emanating from around 50 potential cosmic sources, to carry out long-term spectral and temporal studies of cosmic X-ray sources and to carry out polarisation and spectroscopic measurements of X-ray emission from cosmic sources.
The agency says the spacecraft will carry out X-ray polarisation measurements on celestial objects like black holes, neutron stars and active galactic nuclei. This holds the potential to significantly improve scientists’ understanding of their physics, according to Isro.
Ten other payloads
The PSLV orbital platform module carried 10 payloads, including Women Engineered Satellite by LBS Institute of Technology for Women, BeliefSat0 by KJ Somaiya Institute of Technology, radiation shielding experimental module by TakeMe2Space, Green Impulse Transmitter by Inspecity Space Labs Private Limited and Launching Expeditions for Aspiring Technologies Technology Demonstrator by Dhruva Space Private Limited. There were two payloads from Bellatrix Aerospace Private Limited, two from Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC, Isro) and one from Physical Research Laboratory (PRL, Isro).
