The Indian Space and Reasearch Organisation (ISRO) on Friday launched its 100th satellite along with 30 others in a single mission from Satish Dhwan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
In this milestone fete achieved by India's premier space agency here are a few important things to know about the 'Cartosat-2' series satellite along with the launch of its 30 'co-passenger' satellites:
The 28-hour countdown for the launch of the PSLV-C40 or Cartosat-2 series started at 5.29 am on Thursday.
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, United Kingdom and United States of America. [FULL REPORT]
The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried on-board PSLV-C40 is about 1,323 kgs.
Of the total number of satellites, 30 will be launched into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
Scientists would bring down the height by twice restarting the fourth stage of the PSLV-C40 for launch of Microsat satellite, which will be placed in a 359 kms polar SSO.
The entire launch will happen over a period of 2 hours and 21 seconds.
The launch is a follow-on mission aimed at providing high resolution scene specific spot imageries.
It carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high resolution data.
The images will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems and Geographical Information System applications.
The launch also marks the first mission for ISRO in 2018 following the unsuccessful launch of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on August 31, 2017. The IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 failed after the hear shield did not separate in the leg of the launch sequence and as a result, the satellite got stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket.
(With agency inputs)