India launches 20 satellites successfully
India today successfully launched 20 satellites, including its earth observation 727.5kg Cartosat-2 series, PSLV lifted off a total of 1288kg in to space and began placing satellites into orbit about 17minutes later, in the designated polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO), in a single mission on board ISRO’s 320-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C34 from the spaceport, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, about 110km from Chennai at 9:26 AM, took off on its 36th flight. It was also the 14th flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration with use of solid strap-on motors. ISRO set a world record for the highest number of satellites launched in a single mission when it place 10 satellites in a PSLV on April 28, 2008. NASA in 2013 placed 29 satellites in a single mission and Russia in 2014 launched 33 satellites in one launch. In December 2015, when PSLV- C29 injected six Singapore satellites in to orbit, ISRO conducted a major experiment where the fourth stage was reignited and switched off after the satellites were placed in orbit. ISRO began launching foreign satellites on board PSLV in May 1999, since then, it gained popularity, as it successfully launched 57 foreign satellites by charging only 60 percent of the fee charged by other space agencies.
Cartosat-2 launched on Wednesday include Lapan–A3 from Indonesia, Biros from Germany, M3MSat from Canada, SkySat Gen2-1, a Google-made Satellite from USA, GHGSat-D from Canada, 12 earth imaging Dove satellites from USA, Sathyabhamasat from Satyabhama University, Chennai and Swayam from College of Engineering, Pune.
Primary payload of the India’s mission Carosat-2 series, which provides remote sensing services.
Use of Cartostat 2 includes cartographic, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring and water distribution.
Also creation of land use maps, precision study change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and various other Land information System and Geographical Information System applications can be done. ISRO chairman A S Kiran Kumar congratulated his team for successful launch in a record time and said “ PSLV C-34 has done its job.”