The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C40 will also place the agency’s 100th satellite in the orbit.This ia a New Year gift to the country said Dr. A S Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its 100th satellite at 9.29 am on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The PSLV carries 31 satellites in total from countries including India and six other countries. Among is the satellites that the ISRO’s PSLV is carrying is India’s 100th satellite, Cartosat .The launch is expected to take two hours and 21 seconds.
The Cartosat-2 series satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C40 on Friday. ISRO says that the remote sensing satellite is similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series and is intended to augment data services to the users.
The co-passenger satellites comprise one micro and nano satellite each from India as well as three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the United Kingdom and United States of America.
The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C40 is about 1,323 kgs.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.
The international 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, ISRO states.
