ISRO chairperson S Somanath with delegates from Bhutan after the launch of PSLV-C54 at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota on Saturday

Nellore: Buoyed by the success of the PSLV-C54 mission on Saturday, ISRO chairman S. Somanath said the PSLV will be used for a mission to the sun, to deploy the Aditya-L1 satellite, a coronagraphic spacecraft to study the solar atmosphere, next year.

The spacecraft will be placed in a halo orbit around the first Lagrange point, L1, of the Sun-Earth system. A satellite around the L1 point has the major advantage of continuously viewing the sun without occultation or eclipses.

Dr Somanath said several other missions are in the pipeline for the near future which encompasses navigation and commercial sectors.

He said that the space agency plans to use its PSLVs, GSLVs, LVM3 and SSLV for a slew of satellite launches in the coming months.

Referring to the successful launch of 36 satellites of UK-based OneWeb recently, he said that the firm contracted ISRO’s commercial arm, NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), to launch the next batch of 36 satellites in January 2023. Each launch fetches NSIL `1,000 crore, sources said.

OneWeb is a joint venture between India Bharti Global and the UK Government.

Among the plans is also the launch of a navigation satellite for the country's NavIC constellation, Somanath said, adding that the first of four will go up in 2023.

ISRO orbited eight satellites for the NavIC constellation, of which some are not working.

The space agency will also send up its small rocket, the SSLV, Somanath said. Modifications have been made following the failure of the rocket's maiden mission this year, he said.