India’s leading Space Research Organisation, ISRO announced a few days ago that it is going to launch 31 satellites in a mission onboard its Polar rocket on 10th January. In the single mission itself, Cartosat-2 series earth observation spacecraft is also included. After August 2017 unsuccessful launch of IRNSS-1H navigation satellite, this mission is very important as a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission.
A space official from ISRO said that the launch date has been postponed to January 12 instead of tentative January 10. The plan is to launch earth observation spacecraft Cartosat along with 31 other satellites.
Devi Prasad Karnik, the Public Relations Director of Indian Space Research organization told IANS, “The rocket launch to carry Cartosat and other satellites, including 28 from the US and another 5 countries, will take place on 12th January 2018 at 9.30 am”. Karnik further said that there is actually no delay in the launch date as it seems because the earlier date was merely tentative.
The most famous launching pad in India, Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh will be used for the rocket launch. It would take place from ISRO’s spaceport located in Sriharikota.
This is going to be first space mission in this year on board the launch vehicle PSLV-C40 and it is going to be very important as a similar rocket on August 31, 2017, failed to deliver India’s eighth navigation satellite in the earth’s lower orbit.
According to the reports, the mission’s payload will include microsatellite and nanosatellite beside Cartosat-2. The satellite being observational in nature will help in beaming ultra-high-quality images for cartographic, urban and rural applications. Cartosat-2 will help in determining land use and regulation and utility management services mainly road network monitoring.
The launch vehicle PSLV-C37 launched the first Cartosat-2 series satellite In February 2017 along with more than one hundred co-passenger satellites in a single flight. In June 2017 this year, India’s workhorse launch vehicle launched the 2nd satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites — the 39th consecutively successful mission of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
ISRO has conducted a number of major operations on national as well as international level including the first moon mission rocket Chandrayaan-1 for moon data exploration. It is the matter of pride not only for ISRO but also for India. India’s growth curve for space research and satellite launching through ISRO is continuously showing rising trend.
Now it is the time to observe the result. What would happen? A success story? Or a bunch of excuses for a big failure? Indian govt. Is hoping for the best. Obviously, it will make an exponential curve on the space research of India, if it gets success. Otherwise, we have to wait for another few years to launch such a big mission.
