Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on 23 June successfully launched 31 satellites from First Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The satellites include Earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series weighing 712 kg, 29 foreign and one Indian satellite. The XL variant of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket lifted all the satellites. The total weight of the 30 satellites is 243 kg, while the all the 31 satellites including Cartosat weighs about 955 kg. The PSLV-C38 rocket injected all the satellites into a 505 km polar sun sunchronous orbit (SSO), ISRO informed.
The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 nano satellites belonging to 14 countries – Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the US and one Indian nano satellite; launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO’s commericial arm, the Antrix Corporation Ltd and the international customers.
The countdown for the launch of the satellites began at 5.29 am on Thursday. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites, sources said.
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