Sriharikota, Nov 29 (UNI) The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite
Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C43) on Thursday successfully launched 31 satellites from Satish
Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here.
The Core Alone PSLV-C43 lifted off at 9:57:30 hrs from the First Launch Pad and injected
India’s Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) into the 645 km sun-synchronous polar
orbit, 17 minutes and 19 seconds after the lift-off.
Later, 30 foreign satellites from eight countries, including 23 from United States, were
injected into their intended orbit after restarting the vehicle's fourth stage engines twice.
The last satellite was injected into its designated orbit 1 hour and 49 minutes after the lift-off.
After separation, the two solar arrays of HysIS were deployed automatically and the ISRO
Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru took control of the satellite.
The satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration in the next few days.
With today's mission ISRO achieved a significant milestone, having crossed the 250-mark
in respect of launching foreign satellites. It has till date launched 269 foreign satellites.
This is the 43rd successful flight of PSLV in its 45th mission,proving its trust worthiness..
Speaking to media after the successful launch, ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan said the team
has achieved another spectacular mission 15 days after the successful GSLV-MkIII/GSAT-29
launch.
“Today once again we have proved our excellence,” he said.
He said HysIS was a state-of-the-art satellite with many indigenous components developed
by SAC, Ahmedabad and SCL, Chandigarh.
'Our customers are very happy that their satellites are precisely delivered into orbit', he said.
Dr Sivan said the ISRO was ready for the next launch of GSAT-11 on December 5 from French
Guiana and later GSLV-MkII will launch GSAT-7A from Sriharikota in another two weeks.
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Mission Director R Hutton termed the launch as a grand and marvellous one with clockwork
precision. “We have used a lighter version of PSLV today. It has once again proven its
capabilities to launch multiple satellites into different orbits'.
'All our team members, their family members and industry partners have played a vital role,”
he said.
HysIS Project Director Suresh K said that the satellite is performing normally after the launch.
HysIS s an earth observation satellite built around ISRO’s Mini Satellite-2 (IMS-2) bus
weighing about 380kg. The mission life of the satellite is fiveyears.
The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in both the visible, near infrared
and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Data from the satellite
will be used for a wide range of applications including agriculture, forestry, soil/geological
environments, coastal zones and inland waters, etc.
HysIS had the company of one micro and 29 nano-satellites from eight countries, including
Australia (1), Canada (1), Columbia (1), Finland (1), Malaysia (1), Netherlands (1), Spain (1)
and USA (23). The total weight of these satellites was about 261.50 kg.
Satellites from Australia, Columbia, Malaysia and Spain were flown aboard PSLV for the
first time.
These foreign satellites were launched as part of commercial arrangements between
Antrix Corporation Limited and customers.
So far, the PSLV has launched 44 Indian and nine satellites built by students from Indian
universities. It has also launched 269 international customer satellites.
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