ISRO's PSLV C45 places DRDO defence satellite EMISAT along with 28 nano satellites in orbit

ISRO's PSLV C45 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on Monday, carrying India's EMISAT defence satellite along with 28 nano satellites of global customers. As the 27-hour countdown concluded, the nearly 50-metre tall rocket, a new variant of ISRO's trusted work horse PSLV-QL, blasted off from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota at 9:27 am. The EMISAT defence satellite is aimed at electromagnetic measurement.

The mission would witness the ISRO placing payloads in three orbits and conducting space experiments for the first time. The mission marks several firsts to the credit of the space agency as it would manoeuvre satellites in various orbits and orbital experiments, including on maritime satellite applications.

ISRO's ex-chairman G Madhavan Nair told ANI, "PSLV C45 is a very important milestone for ISRO. It's not only going to launch our own satellite but also those from other nations. Uniqueness of this mission is, it's going to place satellites in 3 different orbits.I hope it'll be 100% success as usual."

According to ISRO, a new variant of the rocket PSLV-QL equipped with four Strap-On motors in the first stage is used for the launch. PSLV, also used in India's two key missions, "Chandrayan" in 2008 and Mars Orbiter in 2013, is a reliable and versatile launch vehicle for ISRO with 39 consecutive successful flights till June, 2017 and five-in-a-row from January 2018.

The rocket has encountered only two failures so far, its maiden developmental flight ended unsuccessful way back in 1993.

The other 28 international satellites -- 25 3U type, two 6U type and one 2U type nano satellites -- are from Lithuania (two), Spain (1), Switzerland (1) and the United States (24).

All these satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements, ISRO said.

In September, 2017, the flight went off without any hitch but the IRNSS-1H Satellite could not be released into orbit after the PSLV-C39's heat shield failed to open on reaching the orbit.

In this mission, ISRO scientists would place the satellites and payloads in three different orbits, a first for the agency. After injecting the 436 kg primary satellite EMISAT, intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement, at around 17 minutes from lift off in a 749 km orbit, they would restart the fourth stage again.

With PTI inputs

Edited by Aseem Thapliyal