PSLV puts four satellites in orbit

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) today successfully blasted off from the Sriharikota spaceport in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. This was its tenth flight which put in orbit four satellites.

The entire process took 20 minutes. "We have done it successfully. We have put all four satellites into the required orbit. It was a textbook mission. Our boys have done well," ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said after the launch.

The PSLV carried into space two Indian satellites "" Cartosat 2, a 680-kg mapping satellite, and a 550-kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment satellite (SRE-1). The vehicle also put in orbit Indonesian earth observation satellite Lapan-Tubsat (56 kg) and Pehuensat, an Argentinean nano-satellite, to serve educational, technological and scientific fields.

Cartosat-2 is the twelfth in the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series.

The data from the satellite will find applications for preparing maps for urban and rural infrastructure management, as well as, land information system and geographical information system.

The four satellites have been placed in a polar orbit at an altitude of 637 km with an inclination of 97.9 degrees with respect to the equator. The initial signals indicate their normal health.

SRE-1 is intended to demonstrate the technology of orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity conditions and recovering the same after completion of the experiments. The successful launch of the satellites takes India into an elite club of countries that have satellite re-entry technology.

PSLV was initially designed by ISRO to place 1,000 kg class Indian remote sensing satellites into 900-km polar sun-synchronous orbits. Since the first successful flight in October 1994, the capability of PSLV was enhanced from 850 kg to 1,600 kg.

In its previous flight (ninth) on May 5, 2005, PSLV launched ISRO's 1,560 kg remote sensing satellite Cartosat-1 and the 42 kg amateur radio satellite, Hamsat.

This PSLV launch comes six months after a GSLV launch failed in July last year when the rocket went into a tailspin and disintegrated soon after the lift-off. It was carrying Insat-4C, a communications satellite.