A record in putting multiple satellites into the orbit.
By Rakesh Agrawal
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) on Wednesday has script history when it, launched 20 satellites, including 17 foreign ones, using its flagship rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C34 from Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Amongst the three Indian satellites were Cartosat 2 series, designed meant for earth observations and it was the primary payload that would be used for Earth observation, with 19 secondary ones, basically micro and nano satellites and the total weight of all payloads being 1,288 kilograms. This way, ISRO celebrated Diwali, the Indian festival of light, almost four and a half months in advance as the mission longed for 26 and a half minutes, the time it took for putting all satellites, one by one, into a polar synchronous orbit of 505 km height. (See: http://www.isro.gov.in/)
Soon after the launch, ISRO chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said, “With this mission, we have launched the current generation Earth observation satellite along with 17 satellites from PSLV.” Adds, Satish Dhawan Space Centre Director P. Kunhikrishnan, “It was a “major milestone” for ISRO to launch 20 satellites in a single mission.”
Even earlier, ISRO has put multiple satellites in the earth’s orbit as in 2008 it launched ten satellites in a single rocket when on April 28, 2008, PSLV-C9 put a Remote Sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A along with Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and eight nanosatellites into the right trajectory.
The record of putting multiple satellites into the orbit, although is held by Russia when in 2014, it launched 37 satellites in a single mission.
And, as ISRO is becoming adept in this technology, it opens India’s market to the world as by 2017, it is expected to be worth billions of dollars. Already, it has taken a step forward as among these 19 foreign payloads, 13 were from the American educational institutes, two from Canada, one each from Germany and Indonesia.
And, the world is taking a note as even the NASA appreciated this achievement, saying it made India proud. (See: http://www.dailyo.in/technology/isro-twenty-satellites-space-launch-navigation-nasa/story/1/11322.html ).