New Delhi: India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) -C40 on Friday successfully placed Cartosat-2 series satellite and 30 co-passenger satellites for earth observation into sun synchronous orbit from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, ISRO said.
The 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite and the co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA. The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C40 is about 1323 kg.
The 28 International customer satellites were launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.
Speaking after the successful launch the chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation AS Kiran Kumar said, “PSLV’s capability of putting multiple satellites into orbit and satellites into multiple orbit both are being done in a single mission practically. Progressively PSLV has better capability.”
According to ISRO, the Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of providing high resolution scene specific spot imageries. It carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high resolution data. It will be the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series.
PSLV has seamlessly carried out 39 consecutive successfully launches, however after the last failure due to a “very minor” issue ISRO took a four-month interval to revisit some of the core areas.
“During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this New Year gift to the country, said AS Kiran Kumar.
ISRO takes a lot of pride in its multi-burn technology which has once again been successfully demonstrated. Representatives from six foreign countries – Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA were present during the launch. 30 of 31 satellites carried by PSLV were first launched into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) while Microsat built by ISRO was placed in a 359 km polar SSO after bringing down the orbital height by reigniting the fourth stage of PSLV twice.
Congratulating ISRO on the successful launch Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, “My heartiest congratulations to ISRO and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country’s rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc.”
With this successful launch ISRO has launched its 100th satellite in orbit.