The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday created a world record by launching 104 satellites in a single flight of PSLVC37 from the Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh. The rocket was blasted off at 9.28 am on Wednesday with major cargo being the 714 kg Indian Cartosat-2 series satellite.
The countdown for the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)’s 39th flight began on Tuesday after it got an approval from the Mission Readiness Review committee and Launch Authorisation Board for the lift off.
With this launch, India has scripted history. Earlier, the Russian Space Agency had successfully launched 37 satellites in one go. Of 101 co-passenger satellites, 96 belong to USA, five from International customers of ISRO — Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, respectively.
PSLV-C37 / Cartosat-2 series Mission Lift off Normal as expected.
— ISRO (@isro) February 15, 2017
Two other Indian nano satellites, totally weighing about 1,378 kg, are also riding in the rocket. The nano-satellites belonging to international customers have been launched as part of the arrangement by Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX) the commercial arm of the ISRO.
Cartosat-2 Series, which is the primary satellite, will be similar to the earlier four satellites in Cartosat-2
Series. After coming into operation, it will provide remote sensing services. Images sent by it will be useful for coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, distribution of water and creation of land use maps, among others.
The two Indian Nano-satellites INS-1A and INS-1B were developed as co-passenger satellites to accompany bigger satellites on PSLV. The primary objective of INS (ISRO Nano Satellite) is to provide an opportunity for ISRO technology demonstration payloads, provide a standard bus for launch on demand services.
INS-1A carries Surface Bidirectional Reflectance Distribution Function Radiometer and INS-1B caries Earth Exosphere Lyman Alpha Analyser as payloads.
