Pratham (satellite)

Pratham is an Indian ionospheric research satellite which will be operated by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay as part of the Student Satellite Initiative. Its primary mission is to count electrons in the Earth's ionosphere.

The Pratham spacecraft is a cube with 30 cm sides and a mass of around 10.15 kg. It was conceptualized by a team of students under the supervision of Professor K. Sudhakar. Pratham was successfully launched on 26 September 2016 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh along with 7 other satellites on PSLV C-35.

Mission
'Pratham' has a Four-fold Mission Statement:

1. Enabling students and faculty to gain knowledge and experience in the field of Satellite and Space Technology.

2. Empowering the Satellite Team with the skills to develop the Satellite through various phases of Design, Analysis, Fabrication and Testing until the Flight Model is made.

3. Launching the satellite into orbit and measuring Total Electron Count of the Ionosphere.

4. Involving students from other universities in our Satellite mission by building ground stations in their universities.