ISRO launches five British satellites

ISRO on Friday successfully launched five British commercial satellites on board PSLV-C28 from this spaceport in the heaviest commercial mission ever undertaken by it. Indian Space Research Organisation workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C28 placed the five satellites in sun synchronous orbit about 20 minutes after lift-off at 9.58 PM from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.

“It’s been a wonderful mission... an extremely successful mission,” a beaming ISRO Chairman Kiran Kumar said from the Mission Control Centre. These satellites can image any target on the Earth’s surface every day. Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring disasters. The life of the mission is seven years. PSLV’s 30th mission saw the launch of three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), UK, and two auxiliary satellites. The three DMC3 satellites, each weighing 447 kg, was launched into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) using the high-end version of PSLV-XL.

Earlier successful launches by ISRO -- Mars Orbiter Mission which was <g data-gr-id="20">launched in</g> November 5, <g data-gr-id="22">2013</g> and Chandrayaan-1 <g data-gr-id="21">launched in</g> October 22, <g data-gr-id="23">2008</g> were with similar PSLV-XL variants. In addition to the three DMC3 satellites, PSLV C28 also carries two auxiliary satellites from UK - CBNT-1, a technology demonstrator earth observation <g data-gr-id="24">micro satellite</g> built by SSTL, and De-OrbitSail, a technology demonstrator <g data-gr-id="25">nano satellite</g> built by Surrey Space Centre.