India, which has in the past few years made tremendous advances in space technology, satellite launches, and interplanetary missions, launched yet another rocket into space earlier today.
The rocket, named the PSLV-C28, launched five satellites into space — all of them British-made — with pin-point accuracy. This was the biggest commercial launch ever executed by the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), the Indian equivalent of NASA. The rocket launch, which off on without any hitch, happened at 9:28 p.m. local time on Friday, July 10. All the five satellites were in orbit in less than 20 minutes following the lift-off. The news of this successful rocket launch comes days after the failure of the Space X rocket that blew up minutes after the launch a few weeks ago.
According to the Times of India , the countdown for the launch of the PSLV-C28 had started at 7:28 a.m. on Wednesday. Sixty-two hours and 30 minutes later, the rocket took off for the 29th consecutive successful launch of a PSLV rocket. The venue for the satellite launch was the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh State. This is the same venue from which the now-famous Mars Orbiter Mission originated back in November of 2013.
According to Firstpost , the PSLV-C28 launch will put three identical optical earth observation satellites (DMC3) into orbit. All three satellites weigh 447 kg each and were placed in a sun-synchronous orbit, 647 kilometers above the earth. Apart from these two, two microsatellites weighing 9kg and 7kg each were also injected into orbit. The smallest of the lot was the De-OrbitSail, and the other one was called the CBNT-1.
According to Indian Express , all the satellites will be launched into a single Low-Earth Orbit plane . They would be used for surveying the Earth’s surface and its resources. They would also be used to manage urban infrastructure and monitoring of disasters. The report adds that the DMC3 satellites and CBNT-1 were built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), while De-OrbitSail was the brainchild of the Surrey Space Centre.
The PSLV satellite launch vehicle has been in use since 1999. With today’s launch, the number of satellites that have been sent into space using this rocket has risen to 45. making it one of the most reliable launch vehicle ever. The same rocket was used for India’s maiden lunar missions — the Chandrayaan series as well as the Mars mission — also known as the Mangalyaan .
[Image Via VSSC]
