The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the NovaSAR and S1-4 earth observation satellites of U.K from the spaceport
here and placed them in the designated orbit.
NovaSAR is intended to be used for forest mapping, land
use and ice cover monitoring, flood and disaster monitoring.
S1-4 will be used for surveying resources, environment
monitoring, urban management and disaster monitoring.
In a night launch, the workhorse PSLV-C42 launch vehicle
blasted off from the first launchpad at the Satish Dhawan
Space Centre at 10.08 PM.
The PSLV injected the satellites into orbit 17 minutes
and 45 seconds after lift off and placed them in a sun
synchronous orbit 583 km from the earth.
ISRO chairman K Sivan said the mission was a success and
congratulated the scientists."Today I am exteremly happy to announce that PSLV-C42carrying two customer satellites NovaSAR and S1-4 placed them precisely in orbit. Within the next six months, 10 satellite missions and eight launch vehicle missions would be launced - one every two
weeks," he said.
ISRO's moon mission would be launched on January 3, 2019
he said.
The two satellites of UK-based Surrey Satellite
Technologies Ltd (SSTL), both weighing 889 kg, were launched
as per a commercial arrangement between the company and ISRO's
commerical wing - Antrix Corporation Ltd.
ISRO had successfully carried out a similar night
launch in 2015 and placed five satellites belonging to SSTL.
The launch comes almost six months after ISRO
successfully placed the INRSS-1I navigation satellite in
orbit on April 12.
First Published: Sept 17, 2018 9:18 AM IST
