Chennai, Oct 29 (UNI) India’s Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle in its 51st mission (PSLV-C49), will launch
Earth Observation Satellite-EOS-01 as primary payload
along with nine international satellites from the Satish
Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR Range, Sriharikota
on November seven.
The launch is tentatively scheduled at 1502 hrs from
the First Launch Pad, subject to weather conditions,
ISRO said in an update on Thursday.
This would be ISRO's first launch mission in 2020
after its launch activities were crippled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite intended for
applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster
management support.
The customer satellites are being launched under
commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited
(NSIL), Department of Space.
PSLV-C49 would be followd by PSLV-C50 with a
communication satellite GSAT-12R next month,
besides the much-awaited first technology
demonstrator--the Small Satellite Launch
Vehicle (SSLV).
For the SSLV launch, the first launch pad would
be reconfigured after the PSLV-C49 mission to
house the shorter SSLV which would be a three
stage vehicle filled with soild propellants.
To ensure that the launch preparations started
gaining momentum, especially after some of its
personnel in SHAR Range tested positive for
COVID-19 and recovered, ISRO has developed
a Virtual Launch Control Centre to test the
rocket systems at the spaceport remotely from
the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram.
This was done to reduce travel risk of ISRO
personnel in view of the pandemic.
The last mission that took place from Sriharikota
was PSLV-C48 which had ferried “spy” satellite
RISAT-2BR1 on December 11, 2019.
ISRO had earlier scheduled the launch of GISAT-1
satellite onboard GSLV-F10 in March this year. But
the mission was postponed due to technical reasons
before the COVID-pandemic had slowed down its
activities.
UNI GV 1300