PSLV-C42 places two earth observation satellites in orbit

The PSLV-C42 rocket took off at 10.08 pm from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 100 km from north Chennai.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the most trusted Indian rocket, placed NovaSAR and S1-4 satellites into the orbit in about 17 minutes.

The mission employs PSLV-CA (core alone) configuration with a lift mass of 230.4 tonnes and height of 44.4 metres.

After the successful launch, Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Sivan said, “I am very happy that the PSLV precisely placed (the satellites) into required orbit. Credit goes to all the ISRO team here.”

He also said that there will be 12 such satellite launches in six months.

“This type of success will give added energy for the industry to make PSLV,” he added.

This is the 44th flight of Polar PSLV and 12th flight of PSLV (CA) version. The satellites were put into sun synchronous orbit under commercial arrangement with Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO.

This commercial mission is designed to launch two satellites (together weighing nearly 889 kg) of Surrey Satellite Technologies Limited (SSTL), the United Kingdom, under a commercial arrangement with Antrix Corporation Limited, Department of Space.

NovaSAR weighing 445 kg is an S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring as well as flood and disaster monitoring.

The S1-4 weighing 444 kg is a high resolution Optical Earth Observation Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management and disaster monitoring.

With the successful launch of the two British satellites on Sunday, the total number of foreign satellites launched by India has gone up to 239.