ISRO to launch Earth Observation Satellite
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series weighing 712 kg and 30 nano-satellites using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Salient Highlights
Out of the 30 nano-satellites, 29 will be of foreign origin and one will be of India’s. The 29 nano-satellites will be from 14 countries such as Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the US. These 29 satellites will be launched by ISRO as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO’s commercial arm, the Antrix Corporation Ltd with these nations.
The 30 satellites will together weigh 243 kg. The total weight of the 31 satellites would be 955 kg. The PSLV-XL will be launched from the Sriharikota rocket port.
The rockets will be placed into a 505 km polar sunsynchronous orbit (SSO).
This will be the seventeenth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration. It uses solid strap-on motors.
PSLV
Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third generation launch vehicle of India which is hailed as the reliable and versatile workhorse launch vehicle of India. PSLV’s first successful launch took place in October 1994. Since then the launch vehicle has 38 consecutively successful missions by February 2017. It has launched 46 Indian satellites and 180 foreign satellites between 1994-2017.
PSLV is also India’s first launch vehicle to be equipped with liquid stages. There are three variants of PSLV, namely, PSLV-G, PSLV-CA, PSLV-XL.
PSLV was used to successfully launch Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013.
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Month: Current Affairs - June, 2017