SRIHARIKOTA: In a landmark move, India on Friday deployed a remote sensing Cartosat and 30 other satellites, including 28 from six nations into the earth's orbit after a copybook launch from its spaceport here.
According to the news agency ANI, the payload fairing has successfully separated from satellite ‘Cartosat-2’ series that was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
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The 44.4-metre tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) roared into a clear sky after a perfect lift-off at 9.29 a.m. following a 28-hour countdown.
The 320-tonne rocket would eject the satellites one-by-one and deploy them into the earth's lower orbit 17 minutes and 18 seconds after the lift-off.
Reacting to the news, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that, "the success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to citizens, farmers and fishermen."
The spaceport is about 80 km northeast of Chennai off the Bay of Bengal coast.
Of the 31 satellites, three are Indian and the rest are from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, UK and the US.
The Indian satellites include the 710 kg Cartosat-2 series for Earth observation as the primary satellite of the mission, along with co-passenger payloads, including 100 kg micro satellite and a 10 kg nano satellite.
Talking to ANI, Minister of State (MoS) for Prime Minister's Office (PMO) Jitendra Singh said, “It is a historic day for us and a great headway for India."
"Prime Minister Narendra Modi has arranged a brainstorming session between space scientists and officials from different government departments so that they could understand the diverse applications of space technology in transforming India,” he added.
The ‘Cartosat-2 Series’ satellite and 29 others will be inserted into a 505-kilometre sun-synchronous orbit after about seventeen and a half minutes since its liftoff.
Later, the payload Microsat developed by the ISRO will be taken down to a lower orbit at 359-kilometre height and launched using the ‘multiple engine switch-on’ method.
This satellite is the seventh remote sensing satellite in its series and has the mission life of five years.
Its uses include monitoring urban and rural applications, coastal land use regulation, managing services like road networks and water distribution, detecting changes in geographical features and creation of land use maps.
The flight is the first since the setback suffered by the PSLV in August 31 last year and is set to demonstrate that the workhorse rocket is back in the game for reliable satellite launches in the low earth and polar orbits.
(with inputs from IANS)