IIT-Bombay sends its first satellite in space that could improve GPS navigation

IIT-Bombay does it again. A micro-satellite-PRATHAM, designed and built by the students of the prestigious institute was part of ISRO's launch of eight satellites through PSLV C-35 on Monday. It is the first satellite to be designed and launched in the space by the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

PSLV C-35, that lifted from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, carried India's SCATSAT-1 meant for ocean and weather studies and seven other satellites, including PRATHAM academic satellite, from IIT- Bombay.

The project began in 2008 by two Aerospace Engineering students Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Shashank Tamaskar and since then nearly 80 students from various batches joined the project and worked on it.

The microsatellite designed to fit within a 30-cm cube will be measuring the total electron count (TEC) in the ionosphere that can improve the accuracy of the global positioning system in India and predict tsunamis.

Built at a cost of Rs1.5 crore, Pratham will orbit at an altitude of 670-km and orbit over India at 11.25 am every day. The life cycle of the mission is four months, but the satellite will be able to continue collecting data on the electron count, a professor of the institute told ET.

Beside SCATSAT-1 and PRATHAM, the 44.4-metre tall workhorse PSLV rocket also carried another academic satellite developed by BES University, Bengaluru; three from Algeria and one each from the US and Canada.