INDIA’S 100th SATELLITE LAUCNCHED: ISRO

Today, the final 28-hour countdown of the PSLV-C40 mission, the first one for 2018, kicked off at 5.29 am after it got the green signal from Isro’s Mission Readiness Review Committee and Launch Authorization Board on Wednesday. The launch is slated for 9.28am on Friday at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. This is Isro’s 100th satellite launch. This mission will be the longest flight of the four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), at two hours, 21 minutes and 62 seconds. It will also be the first mission after the failure of the PSLV on August 31, 2017, where the heat shield malfunctioned, as a result of which the satellite failed to enter orbit. It will also mark the PSLV’s 42nd flight that will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

This launch will also see Isro taking a shot at a two-orbit feat, which can be tricky, for the second time. Seventeen minutes after lift-off, the indigenous 710kg Cartosat-2 series satellite will enter the 505-km polar sun synchronous orbit and an hour after the Cartosat-2 series satellite goes into its orbit, the microsat satellite will be placed in a lower 359-km orbit. Between these two orbits, the engine of the PSLV’s fourth stage will be re-activated twice. The 100-kg Indian microsatellite will demonstrate a new technology which will allow capturing of images at night. The imagery transmitted by Cartosat satellite will be related to areas of cartographic, urban & rural applications, coastal land use, road network & monitoring and water distribution.

By- Nikita Goel, Convenor, Student Reporter Committee, INBA