Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today created a new record by successfully launching 20 satellites in a 26 minute flight through its PSLV C-34 rocket.
PM Narendra Modi congratulated the ISRO team and said the space agency continues to break new barriers.
Apart from India’s latest earth observation Cartosat-2 Series Satellite, satellites from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia, were also launched from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9.25 am today.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-34 (PSLV) is carry India’s latest earth observation Cartosat-2 Series satellite along with 19 co-passenger satellites including those made by Indian students and belonging to foreign vendors.
Here is what you need to know about the latest launch by Indian space agency
1) According to Isro, the total weight of all the 20 satellites is about 1,288 kg.
2) It is the fourteenth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).
3) Cartosat-2 Series is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A and 2B, and 19 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 560 kg at lift-off would be injected into a 505-km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.
4) The co-passengers include satellites from the US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia as well as two satellites from Indian Universities. The launch also takes into orbit two Indian academic community built satellites, Sathyabhamasat and Swayam
5) The mission would carry LAPAN A3 of Indonesia, BIROS of Germany, SKYSAT GEN 2-1 of US, MVV of Germany among the micro satellites, Isro sources had earlier said.
6) The imagery sent by the satellite would be useful for cartographic applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road networking, water distribution, creation of land use maps, precision study, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features.
7) ISRO also launched 13 US-made small satellites into space. This includes an earth imaging satellite made by Terra Bella, a Google-owned company. The 110 kg Google satelite called Sky Sat Gen- 2 is capable of taking sub-meter resolution images and high definition video.
8) A 48-hour countdown activity for the launch started on Monday at 9.26 am and Isro said it was progressing smoothly.The countdown began after the launch authorisation board (LAB) gave its nod and filling of Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen (MON-3) of PS4 was completed Monday.
9) ISRO also created a record in 2008 for placing 10 satellites into various low earth orbits in a single launch.In 2014, Russia had launched 37 satellites in one go. The U.S. had launched 30 satellites in one go.
10) It will be the fourteenth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).
