In a New Year’s gift to the world, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) achieved another milestone by successfully launching the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite, XPoSAT. This marks India as the second country, following the US, to join the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer initiative.
Continuing its successful streak from the previous year, ISRO made history with the launches of Chandrayaan-3, the first solar mission – Aditya-L1, and the Gaganyaan Test Vehicle D1 mission.
PSLV-C58/XPoSat Mission:
The PS4 stage is successfully brought down to a 350 km orbit.
Here are the PSLV-C58 tracking images pic.twitter.com/KXDVA2UnpX
— ISRO (@isro) January 1, 2024
Using its reliable workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) DL, in its 60th flight, ISRO placed the primary satellite XPoSat into a desired orbit at 650 km. The scientific mission aims to provide valuable insights into fundamental phenomena associated with galaxies and black holes.
ISRO Chairman S Somnath expressed satisfaction, labeling it another successful PSLV mission. The XPoSAT launch involved a sophisticated process, including the launch into an Eastward low inclination orbit and subsequent maneuvers to reduce the orbit to a 350 km circular orbit for Orbital Platform (OP) experiments.
Carrying two payloads – POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) – the mission represents ISRO’s first dedicated satellite for space-based polarisation measurements of X-ray emissions from celestial sources.
The scientific goals of the mission include studying the distribution of magnetic fields, geometric anisotropies, alignment about the line of sight, and the nature of accelerators in galactic cosmic X-ray sources. Additionally, XPoSAT aims to provide a detailed understanding of galactic black hole binary sources, exploring whether X-rays are produced from the polar cap of a neutron star or the outer cap of the pulsar magnetosphere.