Indian Space Research Organisation’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully launched nine satellites into space from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota on Saturday.
After deployment, the satellite will be placed in a Sun Synchronous Orbit. They are synchronized to remain in the same fixed position with respect to the Sun at all times.
The spacecraft was cleared on Friday for Saturday’s launch, which will be the 56th PSLV flight from India. The vehicle will take off with a take-off weight of 321 tonnes. Nine satellites are on the spacecraft, including seven customer satellites, a diplomatic satellite jointly developed with Bhutan and a national satellite of the Oceansat family.
The eight nanosatellites were built by both India and Bhutan in collaboration with private companies. The third generation Oceansat satellite, Earth Observation Satellite-06, aims to provide Oceansat-2 spacecraft continuation services with improved payload specifications and application areas.
Earth Observation Satellite-6, also known as Oceansat-3, was launched from a 44.4 m rocket with a lift-off mass of 321 tonnes.
The 24th flight of the PSLV-XL variant will separate the primary satellite into Orbit-1, followed by an orbit change using the two Orbit Change Thrusters (OCTs) introduced in the propulsion bay ring of the PSLV-C54 vehicle.
