Isro's PSLV successfully places RISAT-2BR1, 9 foreign satellites in orbit

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was in its 50th mission (PSLV-C48), successfully placed India’s latest spy satellite RISAT-2BR1 and nine other foreign satellites in their designated Orbits.

The rocket blasted off at 1525 hrs IST (3:25 pm) from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, on Wednesday. The rocket PSLV is a QL variant and this is its second flight.

The rocket separated RISAT-2BR1 just 16 minutes into its flight, and ejected the first of the nine foreign satellites a minute,  with the remaining eight following suit.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said that all the satellites were placed in their designated orbits successfully. Isro Chairman K Sivan said "I am extremely happy to declare that 50th PSLV rocket had injected the RISAT-2BR1 and nine customer satellites into precise orbit".

The main payload, the 628-kg RISAT-2BR1, is a radar-imaging earth observation satellite developed by Isro. It has a life of five years. While Isro maintains that it will help agriculture, forestry and in disaster management support, experts said RISAT-2BR1 is the second satellite in the RISAT-2B series and, along with the CARTOSAT-3, is part of an informal group of 'spy' satellites that will boost the Indian military's surveillance of the Earth from space.

The first satellite in the RISAT-2B series was launched earlier this year to replace the ageing RISAT-2, which went out of commission. The RISAT-2BR1 will be followed by another satellite of the RISAT-2B series later month. A fourth RISAT-2B type satellite will be launched later to complete a quartet of spy satellites with advance earth-imaging abilities.

Experts said these satellites will help maintain round-the-clock surveillance across the border and will also check infiltration and illegal entry. These satellites are equipped with a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can take pictures of the earth at all times of the day and also under cloudy and poor visibilty conditions.

Piggybacking on the Indian satellite would be nine foreign satellites from the United States (multi-mission Lemur-4 satellites, technology demonstration Tyvak-0129, earth imaging 1HOPSAT), Israel (remote sensing Duchifat-3), Italy (search and rescue Tyvak-0092) and Japan (QPS-SAR, a radar imaging earth observation satellite).

Milestones

* 75th launch vehicle mission from SDSC SHAR

* 50th flight of PSLV

* 37th launch from first launch pad

* 6th launch of 2019

* Second flight of PSLV-QL