/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15712833
> The rocket that will carry Aditya into orbit has been designated with flight number PSLV C57, and will be the fifty-ninth PSLV rocket to fly. The rocket is ISRO’s workhorse, carrying out the majority of the agency’s satellite launches as well as occasional commercial missions. It first flew in September 1993 and had – prior to Saturday’s launch – carried out 55 of its missions successfully, with two failures and one partial failure due to an off-nominal orbit. PSLV’s last 17 missions have all been successful.

> PSLV’s first stage is powered by an S-138 solid rocket motor. Depending on the configuration, up to six PS0M-XL solid rocket motors can be attached as boosters to augment its thrust, with PSLV-XL using the full set of six. Once Saturday’s countdown reaches zero, the first stage will ignite, followed by the first two pairs of boosters at T+0.42 seconds and T+0.62 seconds. Climbing away from the SDSC, PSLV will ignite the final pair of boosters around 25 seconds into flight. Separation of the ground-lit boosters will occur around the 70-second mark, while the air-lit boosters will separate about 92 seconds into the mission.

4 stage rocket
first stage: solid rocket with attachable extra SRBs
second stage is a liquid hypergolic ("UH25, a mixture of three parts unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine to one part hydrazine hydrate, while its oxidizer is dinitrogen tetroxide")
third stage is a solid rocket stage again
fourth stage is a liquid hypergolic again capable of carrying multiple burns, propellants are "monomethylhydrazine and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON-3 – a mixture of 3% nitric oxide and 97% dinitrogen tetroxide).")