Monday’s PSLV launch will witness four U.S. satellites flying from the Indian soil for the first time. The six commercial passengers of PSLV-C30 are small, ranging from 7 kg to 76 kg. Together they weigh 118 kg.
San Francisco-based Spire Global Inc. is launching four identical LEMUR satellites each weighing 7 kg. They have been built for non-visual remote sensing for global maritime intelligence.
Under the stiff U.S. export control regime, no spacecraft built by a U.S. agency or using American components can fly on the PSLV. Five more small U.S. satellites are in the queue for a PSLV launch in 2015-16. In August, ISRO’s spokesperson had confirmed to The Hindu that their commercial unit Antrix Corporation had won contracts to launch nine small U.S. satellites during this time.
The Indian and U.S. governments have been discussing launching small U.S. scientific satellites first and moving to larger commercial satellites. They signed the Technology Safeguards Agreement in 2009 to allow small experimental satellites to fly on the PSLV.
To get contracts for full U.S. commercial satellites to ISRO, the two must sign a commercial space launch agreement, which is not visible at the moment; and must also get a few other arms-related clearances.
Of the other payloads, LAPAN-A2 weighing 76 kg is from Indonesia’s National Institute of Aeronautics and Space and meant for maritime surveillance and Earth observation.
The 14-kg NLS-14 of Canada’s Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto Institute for Advanced Studies, is a maritime monitoring nanosatellite.
