Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) accomplished another successful launch as its trusted PSLV rocket took off from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sunday. This time, the rocket carried seven Singaporean satellites and placed them into their intended orbits.
“Around 23 minutes after lift-off, the primary satellite got separated and it was followed by six other co-passenger satellites, which were deployed into the intended orbits sequentially,” the ISRO officials said. The mission, which comes after the much-awaited Chandrayaan-3 launch earlier this month, is being undertaken by its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
After the 25-hour countdown that commenced on Saturday, the 44.4-metre tall rocket lifted off majestically from the first launch pad at this spaceport, one minute after the prefixed time of 6.30 am, emanating thick fumes on its tail.
The lift-off time was rescheduled to 6.31 am as space debris was expected on the path of the rocket during its journey to orbit. "Change of lift-off time occurs when space debris comes in the path of the rocket. That is what happened today," an ISRO official told PTI.
The primary payload carried by ISRO's trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the DS-SAR Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite, which has been developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, Singapore.
The 360-kg satellite, upon deployment at an altitude of 535 km into a Near-equatorial Orbit (NEO), would be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore. The payload allows DS-SAR to provide for all-weather day-and-night coverage and it is capable of imaging at 1-metre resolution.
“We are going to come back with another PSLV mission soon in the month of August or early September," said S Somanth chairman of ISRO at the Mission Control Centre.
