THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: ISRO’s record-breaking PSLV-C37 mission which will lift off with 104 satellites on Wednesday will also have cameras on board to keep a close watch on the separation of the satellites as well as the propulsion stages.
ISRO officials said there will be a ‘Video imaging system’ consisting of eight cameras aboard the mission, which is also the 39th launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The previous PSLV mission also had carried cameras on board to capture the separation events of various propulsion stages and satellites.
The PSLV-C37 mission will lift off from the first launch pad of Sriharikota at 9.28 am on Wednesday. It will carry the main payload - a Cartosat-2 series satellite - and 103 co-passenger satellites, including INS-1A and 1B from ISRO and 101 nano-satellites for various foreign customers.
“The higher number of satellites in this mission demands adopting innovative approaches and taking higher degree of care in the mission design,’’ said ISRO.
“The sequencing as well as timing of satellite separation events and reorientation of the final propulsion stage are carefully optimised ensuring safe distance among the separated satellites avoiding collision between them and the stage 4 over a longer period of time,’’ the space agency said.