(Image source from: parabolicarc.com)
India’s space agency (ISRO) has been successful in placing its RADAR imaging satellite and nine customer satellites from other nations which included the US and Israel in a PSLV launch on Wednesday, this being the 50th flight of India’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Injecting into the space, the Indian satellite- RISAT 2BR1- a 628 kg radar imaging earth observation satellite which has applications in disaster management support, agriculture and forestry, PSLV C48 took off from the first launch pad at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 3:25pm. It was
The satellite has been placed at the altitude of 576 km in over 16 minutes from the launch.
“This was a historical mission, the 50th flight of the PSLV. What is waiting for us is to accomplish the next 50 launched in five years or so,” said S Somnath, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram.
An action plan to productionise PSLV through an industry consortium was initiated by ISRO to increase the output. ISRO launched its latest satellite of cartographic applications being the first to launch a foreign satellites under NewSpace India agreements.
“Today, ISRO had a historic mission and I am extremely happy to declare that the 50th PSLV successfully injected RSAT 2BR1 and nine customer satellites precisely into orbit. Along with the 50th mission of PSLV, this mission was another major milestone for ISRO. It is the 75th launch from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. In the last 26 years, the PSLV has flown in five variations and carried 52.7 tonne to spaces, of which 17% of the mass belongs to customer satellites,” said Dr Sivan.
“The PSLV has visited almost all the places in the space. It has launched a satellite in an inclined orbit, it has launched a satellite in the polar orbit, it has launched a satellite in GTO (geosynchronous transfer orbit), it has sent a satellite to moon, it has sent a satellite to Mars, and now we are going to send a satellite to the sun,” said K Sivan.
The success rate has been 96% with this launch vehicle mission.“This is at par or better than the gold standard,” said Dr V Narayanan, director of Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Thiruvananthapuram
PSLV c49, ISRO’s next launch will take RF monitoring satellites of Luxembourg’s Kleos and more from Spire Global and is to be scheduled for the month.
By Shrithika Kushangi
