Sriharikota, Sep 16 (UNI) In a purely commercial mission from this
Indian spaceport, the workhorse launch vehicle of ISRO, PSLV-C42,
carrying two British earth observation satellites, lifts off from the
SHAR Range here on Sunday night.
After a succcessful 33-hour countdown, the PSLV-C42 carrying
NovaSAR and S1-4, satellites together weighing 889 kg,
lifts off from the First Launch Pad as planned at 2208 hrs.
Scientists at the Mission Control Centre were watching the
course of the flight, which took off majestically, belging
orange fumes, with a rumble that shook the earth, lighting up
the dark skies on a balmy Sunday night.
About 17 minutes after lift off, the 44.4 m tall PSLV-C42,
with a lift off mass of 230.4 tons, would place into the
orbit the two earth observation satellites, NovaSAR and S1-4
of M/s Surrey Satellite Technologies Limited (SSTL), United
Kingdom, under the commercial arrangement with Antrix
Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.
After the ignition and separation of the four stage vehicle,
both the satellites would be injected into a 583 km Sun
Synchronous Orbit, with an inclination of 97.806 deg
to the equator.
UNI GV KSR2221