Press Release
a.PSLV-C37 Successfully
Launches 104 Satellites in a Single Flight
At
0928 hrs IST today morning, ISRO successfully launched the 714 kg
Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites on
board ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C37, from Satish
Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
It
is the highest number of satellites launched in one single mission
anywhere. Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the space
scientific community and the nation for this proud feat.
This is the thirty eighth
consecutive successful mission of PSLV. All the 104 satellites were
successfully separated from the PSLV fourth stage in a predetermined
sequence. The total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV now
stands at 46.
The
imagery from the Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for
cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land
use, utility management like road network monitoring, water
distribution, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade
features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and
Geographical Information System (GIS) applications. The data sets
could be used for urban planning of 500 cities under the Amrut
Planning Scheme. ISRO Nano Satellites, INS-1 and INS-2, were also
launched.
In addition, 101 foreign
nano satellites from six countries were launched in a significant
international dimension. Of these, 96 were from the United States,
and 1 each from Israel, Kazakhstan, UAE, the Netherlands and
Switzerland. With today’s successful launch, the total number of
customer satellites from abroad launched by India’s PSLV has
reached 180.
This mission involved
many technical challenges such as realising the launch of a large
number of satellites during a single mission within stipulated time
frame. Besides, ensuring adequate separation between all the 104
satellites during their orbital injection as well as during their
subsequent orbital life was yet another complexity associated with
this mission. With this launch, ISRO has further bolstered its
impeccable scientific credentials as a reliable partner for space
initiatives.
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