Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Thursday morning successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket carrying Indian earth-mapping satellite HysIS and 30 other satellites from eight countries.
In a statement, ISRO said, “The launch of rocket took place at 9.58 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh about 110 km from Chennai.”
Within 17 minutes into the flight, the PSLV rocket placed the HysIS satellite in the 636-km polar sun-synchronous orbit. The primary goal of HysIS, whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth’s surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The co-passengers of HysIS include 1 micro and 29 nanosatellites from eight countries–23 from the United States of America and one each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain. All these satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited.
PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages. PSLV-C43, which is the 45th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is the ‘Core Alone’ version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle.
Importantly, this is ISRO’s second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14.
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