ISRO's 100th launch: PSLV successfully places Cartosat-2 in orbit

On its 42nd mission, ISRO's trusted workhorse 'PSLV-C40' will carry the weather observation 'Cartosat-2' series satellite and 30 co-passengers at lift-off at 9.28 am.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 100th satellite from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Friday. This was the first mission after the failure of the PSLV on August 31, 2017, where the heat shield malfunctioned, as a result of which the satellite failed to enter orbit.

As per last reports, nano satellites were successfully injected into to orbit.

The fourth stage was sucessfully separated. Even the heat sheild separation, which had led to last mission's failure, was successful.

"During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country," said ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar.

This was also the first launch for ISRO in 2018. On its 42nd mission, ISRO's trusted workhorse 'PSLV-C40' will carry the weather observation 'Cartosat-2' series satellite and 30 co-passengers at lift-off at 9.28 am. The weight of all the satellites put together is about 1,323 kg.

The final 28-hour countdown of the PSLV-C40 mission kicked off at 5.29am on Thursday after it got the green signal from Isro's Mission Readiness Review Committee and Launch Authorization Board on Wednesday.

The Cartosat-2 remote-sensing satellite is the main payload aboard the PSLV C-40. It will boost data services for urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, monitoring of road networks, water distribution, and land-use mapping, said an HT report.

The launch, which was initially scheduled for January 10, was postponed by two days. ISRO's Public Relations Director Devi Prasad Karnik had on January 9 said that January 10 was just a tentative date announced earlier, adding that there has been no "delay" in the launch

According to ISRO, Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of 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. This would be the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series.

In February 2017, PSLV-C37 launched the first Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites in a single flight. In June, India's workhorse launch vehicle launched the second one along with 30 co-passenger satellites -- the 39th consecutively successful mission of PSLV.

OneIndia News