CHENNAI, DEC 11
The indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C48) was successfully blasted off by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), as its 50th mission from the launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota on Wednesday.
The rocket is carrying India’s latest ‘spy’ satellite RISAT-2BR1 and nine foreign satellites.
The PSLV C48 blasted off at 3.25 p.m. is the QL variant of PSLV and this is the second flight of the variant.
Just after 16 minutes into its flight, the rocket will separate RISAT-2BR1 and a minute later, the first of the nine customer satellites will be ejected.
The main payload 628 kg -RISAT-2BR1 – is a radar imaging earth observation satellite developed by ISRO. The satellite has a life of five years. While ISRO maintains that it will help in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support, RISAT-2BR1 is the second satellite in the RISAT-2B series and along with the CARTOSAT-3 is part of ‘spy’ satellites that will boost the capability of our defence forces’ to carry out Earth surveillance from space, especially in border areas.
RISAT-2BR1 will be followed by another satellite of the RISAT-2B series later this month. A fourth RISAT-2B type satellite will be launched later to complete a quartet of ‘spy’ satellites with advance earth imaging abilities.
These satellites will help keep a check on infiltration by allowing round-the-clock surveillance across the border. These satellites are equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can take pictures of earth both during the day and night, irrespective of the cloud conditions.
PSLV carried nine foreign satellites, including three from the US (multi-mission Lemur-4 satellites, technology demonstration Tyvak-0129, earth imaging 1HOPSAT), and one each from Israel (remote sensing Duchifat-3), Italy (search and rescue Tyvak-0092) and Japan (QPS-SAR, a radar imaging earth observation satellite).
The countdown to launch the radar imaging satellite RISAT-2BR1 was begun on Tuesday.
The space agency said the satellites are being launched under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Ltd.
