ISRO launches satellite to study earth’s surface

Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off successfully from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, November 29, with the country's Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS)—an earth observation satellite—and 30 other foreign satellites.

The PSLV-CA (Core Alone) version (without its usual strap-on motors), standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing about 230 tonne, took off at 9.58 am from the first launch pad here, spewing thick orange flame.

The PSLV rocket—a four stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages/engines—had the 380 kg HysIS and 30 others together weighing 261.5 kg as its luggage.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the entire mission will be completed in about 112 minutes after the rocket's lift off.

Sixteen minutes into the flight, the rocket's fourth stage/engine will be switched off.

Just over 17 minutes into the flight, the PSLV rocket will place the HysIS satellite with a mission life span of five years in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit.

After that the rocket will be brought to a lower altitude of 503 km from 642 km.

Post ejection of HysIS, the rocket's fourth stage will be restarted at 59.65 minutes after the lift off. Later, the engine will be switched off and on twice before the final passenger is put into orbit about 112.79 minutes after the rocket's lift off.

The ISRO had earlier carried out a satellite mission for over two hours in January.

The primary goal of HysIS, whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth's surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The co-passengers of HysIS include one micro and 29 nano satellites from eight different countries.

While 23 satellites are from the US, the rest are from Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain.

These satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO.

ISRO's workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 was successfully injected into orbit India's earth observation satellite HysIS.

The 30 other co-passenger international satellites including those from the United States of America and Australia among others, will soon be placed into orbit.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown.

The HySIS was placed in orbit 17 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off.

ISRO chief K Sivan and the space agency's scientists broke into cheers as the earth observation satellite was injected into sun-synchronous polar orbit.

It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission, which is on its 45th flight.

The co-passenger satellites have been contracted for launch through ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited.

This is ISRO's second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14.

All the satellites would be placed in a 504 km orbit by PSLV-C43, the space agency said.

PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages. PSLV-C43, which is the 45th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), is the 'Core Alone' version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle.