Bouncing back strongly from its recent failure, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday successfully launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota.The PSLV -C40 successfully placed Cartosat-2 series satellite into sun synchronous orbit, Isro said.
“ISRO is starting 2018 with the successful launch of our Cartosat small satellite, nanosat and microsat and 28 customer satellites,” A.S.Kiran Kumar, Isro’s chairman said to loud applause within the command centre.The success of Friday’s launch comes about four months after Isro’s PSLV-C39 failed following a technical snag involving the heat shield.
“The last launch on the PSLV, whatever heat shield problems we had faced, the committees went through rigorously and then found corrective measures that were required to make the system more robust and today what has happened vindicates that the problem is properly understood and rectified and we are extremely happy to provide a new year gift to the country with Cartosat series,” Kumar said.
The 710 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 613 kg at lift-off.The co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA. The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C40 is about 1323 kg, according to information provided by ISRO.
