ISRO's 100th Mission: ISRO successfully launches PSLV-C21 & puts 2 foreign satellites in orbit

India on Sunday successfully launched its 100th space mission with the native PSLV-C21 rocket putting in orbit two foreign satellites. 

In a copybook launch, witnessed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ISRO’s workhorse PSLV placed in orbit France’s SPOT-6 satellite and Japanese spacecraft PROTIERES, some 18 minutes after a perfect lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here. 

The launch, scheduled for 9.51 a.m., was delayed by two minutes at the end of the 51-hour countdown.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), on its 22nd flight, soared into an overcast sky at 9.53 a.m. carrying the 720 kg French satellite, the heaviest satellite to be launched by India for a foreign client. 

The mission was described as “a spectacular success” and a milestone by Mr Manmohan Singh, who keenly watched the entire launch sequence and applauded each stage separation culminating in the placing of the two satellites in orbit. 

The launch was a landmark for Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) which began its space odyssey on a humble note when it launched the indigenous ‘Aryabhatta’ on board a Russian rocket on April 19, 1975. 

The launch has yet again demonstrated the versatility and robustness of PSLV with the rocket completing its 21st successful mission in a row since its first failed flight in September 1993. 

No Indian satellite was onboard today’s flight which is the third wholly commercial launch undertaken by ISRO for foreign clients. 

SPOT-6 is the biggest commercial lift so far since India forayed into the money spinning commercial satellite launch services after 350 kg Agile of Italy put in orbit in 2007 by PSLV. Twelve other foreign commercial satellites launched by ISRO weighed below 300 kg. 

Significantly, France’s five earlier SPOT satellites were launched by European Araine rocket. 

SPOT-6, built by ASTRIUM SAS, a subsidiary of EADS, France, is an earth observation satellite, while the micro satellite PROITERES, developed by students and faculty of Osaka Institute of Technology, will study Kansai region of Japanese island of Honshu.

ISRO's 100th Mission Video

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PSLV-C18 carrying weather satellite launched

PSLV-C18, the Indian rocket carrying the Indo-French tropical weather satellite Megha-Tropiques and three other smaller satellites was launched on Wednesday. It is expected to launch its 50th satellite since 1993.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - C18 (PSLV-C18) -- blasted off from Sriharikota spaceport, around 80km from Chennai.




It is lugging a 1,000-kg Megha Tropiques and three smaller satellites together weighing 42.6 kg.

Megha Tropiques is an Indo-French collaboration to study climatic and atmospheric changes in tropical regions and makes India the second nation in the world to launch such a space mission.

The satellite will look down at the earth from around 800 km low earth orbit and is expected to enable the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to forecast weather in a more precise manner.

The three nano satellites that will be ferried by the PSLV are the 10.9-kg SRMSAT built by the students of SRM University near Chennai, the three-kg remote sensing satellite Jugnu from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur and the 28.7-kg VesselSat from Luxembourg to locate ships on high seas.

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PSLV-C16 launch successful, satellites injected into orbit

PSLV C16 Launch

India's PSLV-C16 rocket on Wednesday successfully launched into orbit the latest remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 that would study and help manage natural resources along with two nano satellites.

ISRO's homegrown workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle placed in a 'Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit' Resourcesat-2, Youthsat and X-Sat about 18 minutes after it blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre launch pad here, 90 km from Chennai, at 10.12 am.

"PSLV-C16 Resourcesat-2 mission is successful," a jubilant Indian Space Research Organisation Chairman K Radhakrishnan announced shortly after all the three satellites were hurled into space one after another 822 km above earth in a text book launch.

The ISRO chief's announcement was cheered by the battery of scientists at the mission control centre who heaved a sigh of relief as they were gripped by an added anxiety following two successive failures of GSLV missions last year.

The 1,206 kg Resourcesat-2 with a space life of five years replaces Resourcesat-1 launched in 2003 and would provide data with enhanced multispectral and spatial coverage on natural resources.

The GSLV mission in December last year failed when the homegrown GSLV F06 carrying communication satellite GSAT-5P exploded mid-air less than a minute after lift-off and fell into the Bay of Bengal.

GSAT-5P, carrying 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders, plunged into the sea when the destruct command was issued as the rocket veered from its flight path.

Earlier, the GSLV-D3 mission carrying GSAT-4 had also failed in April 2010, dealing a blow to India's space programme.

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