New Delhi: India has achieved a historic milestone in its bilateral cooperation with Bhutan as two special friends and neighbours, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
Jaishankar’s comment come after ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or PSLV successfully injected Earth observation satellite 'Oceansat' into a sun-synchronous orbit. The PSLV-C54 rocket carried Oceansat-3 and 9 nanosatellites, including one from Bhutan.
“The collaborative efforts of the dedicated team of space engineers and scientists from ISRO and Bhutani side have culminated today in the launch of this satellite of Bhutan,” news agency ANI quoted EAM Jaishankar as saying.
It is to be noted that the 44.4 metre tall rocket lifted off at a prefixed time at 11:56 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, at this spaceport, at the end of a 25.30-hour countdown.
After lifting off, the PSLV-C54 rocket reached the intended orbit after 17 minutes, following which the Earth Observation Satellite or the Oceansat successfully separated from the rocket, and it was placed into orbit, ISRO chairman S Somanath said.
“The Performance were excitingly good in this mission,” Somanath said.
Notably, PSLV-C54 carries an Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-06) or Oceansat as its primary payload, and eight co-passenger satellites are expected to be placed into sun synchronous orbits in a time frame of about two hours.
The Earth Observation Satellite-6 is the third-generation satellite in the Oceansat series.
This is to provide continuity services of Oceansat-2 spacecraft, with enhanced payload specifications and also application areas.
The eight nanosatellites include ISRO Nano Satellite-2 for Bhutan (INS-2B), Anand, Astrocast (four satellites), and two Thybolt satellites. The INS-2B spacecraft will have two payloads namely NanoMx and APRS-Digipeater.