India's space aspirations received a major boost yesterday morning when India's indigenously built PSLV rocket successfully placed 5 satellites into orbit. The rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:22 am IST on July 12, as scheduled.
The PSLV C15 carried five satellites, which also included a remote sensing satellite, the Cartosat 2B and one pico satellite called the STUDSAT made by engineering college students of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The other satellites were Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland. This launch comes barely three months after the failure of the GSLV D3, which failed to complete its mission and crashed into the Bay of Bengal.
The Cartosat 2B happens to be the latest remote sensing satellite to be launched by India. It joins its siblings the Cartosat-2 and 2A, both of which are currently in service. Alsat from Algeria, too is a remote sensing satellite and tips the scales at 116 kg. The other nano satellites are quite lightweight weighing just six kilos. The satellite designed by the engineering students is even smaller and weighs just a kilo.
Since its first launch in 1994, the PSLV has so far placed 17 Indian and 22 foreign satellites into orbit - making it one of the most successful launch vehicles ever - worldwide.
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