ISRO to launch 22 satellites on one rocket

Bengaluru, March 29: ISRO is gearing itself for setting new records in its historical timeline as it is all set to blast off PSLV C34 rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota in May this year.

The launch vehicle will inject 22 satellites in a single trip. Apart from the Indian remote sensing satellite, Cartosat 2C, the rocket will also carry four micro-satellites weighing 85 to 130 kg each and 17 nano-satellites weighing 4 to 30 kg.

18 of the satellites are being launched on behalf of USA, Canada, Germany and Indonesia. To add to the joy is the fact that two of the nnao satellites have been developed by Pune Engineering College and Satyabhama University.

VSSC Director K. Sivan said,"The PSLV rocket, in its XL version, will be used for the mission. The injection of so many satellites into orbit increases the complexity of the mission many fold."

M3MSAT of Comdev, Canada, is a micro satellite that will be used for collection and study of automatic identification system signals from low earth orbit.LAPAN A3 is an Indonesian satellite is an earth surveillance and magnetic field monitoring satellite, Germany's BIROS on the other hand will be used for remote sensing of high temperature events. US's KYSAT Gen2-1 of Skybox will be used for earth imaging.

The nano-satellite to be launched includes three quadpacks of four earth-imaging technology demonstrator satellites, each of Spaceflight, U.S., and a package of two Canadian satellites to keep a track of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

In April 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites into orbit using the PSLV C9 rocket.

OneIndia News