The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched its 100th satellite today from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched the ‘Cartosat-2’ series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites at 9.28 a.m. ISRO has also adopted an optimum sequence so as to avoid any kind of collisions.
The final 28-hour countdown for the launch of 31 satellites began on Thursday at 5.29 a.m. The PSLV-C40 is 44.4 meters tall that weighed about 320 tonnes during the lift-off stage. The total weight of all the satellites combined was 1,323kg which will be deployed in the lower orbit after the lift-off.
During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country. – A.S. Kiran Kumar, chairman of ISRO
Out of the 31 satellites, three satellites are Indian, while the rest 28 are from six other countries like Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, the UK, and the US. The Indian satellites weighed 710kg, including 100kg microsatellite and a 10kg nanosatellite.
17 minutes 18 seconds after the takeoff, the Cartosat-2 series were separated, which was combined into a 505 km sun-synchronous orbit.
ISRO had tested the system to avoid the recursion of the problem on its 42nd mission. Cartosat will be used to capture high-quality images for rural-urban applications and utility management like road network monitoring.
