ISRO is set to launch 36 OneWeb satellites on October 23

India is in its final preparations to launch 36 satellites on October 23 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rolled out and brought OneWeb's constellation vehicle Mark-III to the launching pad.

The GSLV-MkIII (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) will be replaced by the LVM-3 because these rockets will land in low earth orbit rather than geosynchronous orbit. The launch has been carried out in accordance with the contract with M/s Network Access Associated Limited (M/s OneWeb) to launch the satellites.

This agreement was signed between India's new space agency (NSIL) and OneWeb after Russia refused to launch services with the United Kingdom because of the sanctions imposed by western countries after Russia invaded Ukraine.

The rockets were rolled out after launching from the Russian-operated Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. At the time, Russia made demands like the satellites would not be used for military purposes and that the UK government should withdraw as a stakeholder from Oneweb.

The satellites were brought to India last month, and since then the integration process has been going on.

Why is the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle MK-II referred to as Launch Vehicle Mark 3 (LVM-3)?

Changing the name before launching is something new to India. The only reason for the name change is that the rocket will no longer deploy saltilles in geosynchronous orbit but rather in low earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 1,200 kilometres. The geosynchronous orbit is located around 35,786 kilometres above Earth's equator.