ISRO launches earth monitoring satellite

Sriharikota(AP): Space agency ISRO’s trusted workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 blasted off from here Thursday carrying India’s earth observation satellite HysIS along with 30 satellites from eight countries.

The 28-hour countdown for the launch began at 5.58 AM on Wednesday and the rocket blasted off at 9.58 am Thursday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 110 km from Chennai, the space agency said.

The Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO, is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission.

The mass of the spacecraft is about 380 kg, ISRO said, adding that the satellite would be placed in 636 km-polar sun synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.957 degree.

The primary goal of HysIS, whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth’s surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The co-passengers of HysIS include 1 micro and 29 nano satellites from eight countries–23 from the United States of America and one each from Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain.

All these satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through ISRO’s commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited.

All the satellites would be placed in a 504 km orbit by PSLV-C43, the space agency said. PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages.

PSLV-C43, which is the 45th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is the ‘Core Alone’ version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle.

This is ISRO’s second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14.