The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Saturday launched the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C54 rocket from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The PSLV-C54 rocket took off carrying EOS-06, also known as Oceansat-3, and 8 nanosatellites. It carries India’s first privately built earth observatory satellite ‘Anand’. This satellite has been developed by Bengaluru-based Pixxel.
The launch was successfully carried out at its scheduled time of 11:56 am from the first launch pad, Sriharikota spaceport.
This is the 56th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the 24th Flight of PSLV-XL version with 6 PSOM-XLs, as per ISRO.
The primary objective of the mission is to ensure the data continuity of Ocean colour and wind vector data to sustain the operational applications.
The height of the PSLV-C54 vehicle is 44.4 meters.
Around 17.17 minutes after take-off, the rocket’s fourth stage injected EOS-06 (Oceansat-3) into a 742.7km orbit. EOS-06 is a third-generation satellite in the Oceansat series. This will provide continuity services of Oceansat-2 spacecraft with enhanced payload specifications as well as application areas.
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After placing Oceansat-3 in the orbit, the rocket’s PS4 would change orbits to a 516 km sun-synchronous polar orbit to place the rest of the satellites in the next one hour. The entire placing for sun-synchronous polar orbit would take around two and a half hours.
It has two Thybolt satellites, communication payloads made by Dhruva Space, and INS-2B satellite (India-Bhutan Sat) which would be injected into a 528.8km altitude.
The mission is said to be the last one undertaken by ISRO this year.
(With PTI Inputs)