Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
Also called: PSLV · Topic: Transport and Communication in India · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is a rocket that India designed and built. ISRO uses it to place satellites in space. It is best known for launching satellites into polar orbits, which pass over both Poles, and sun-synchronous orbits, which cross each place at the same local time every day. These orbits suit remote sensing satellites, which photograph and map the Earth, such as India's IRS series. The PSLV has four stages that burn one after another, using solid and liquid fuel in turn. Its long record of successful launches earned it the name ISRO's "workhorse". It also gave India its own way to reach space without depending on foreign rockets.
Example
PSLV rockets lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, an island on the Andhra Pradesh coast. In 2008 a PSLV launched Chandrayaan-1, India's first mission to the Moon. In 2013 a PSLV launched the Mars Orbiter Mission (Mangalyaan). After two PSLV failures in 2025-26, ISRO's whole launch schedule was held back. This happened because the PSLV shares some design features with the GSLV.
Don't confuse with
- GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle): a heavier rocket with a cryogenic upper stage, which burns fuels kept at very low temperatures. It carries heavier satellites towards high geostationary orbits. GSLV, not PSLV, launches NavIC's NVS satellites.
- SLV-3: India's first, much smaller launcher. It put Rohini RS-1 into orbit from Sriharikota in 1980.