PSLV puts satellites in multiple orbits

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) reached another milestone on Monday with the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C35.

For the first time, the Sriharikota space centre had two missions in a single month. Monday's launch had the longest mission spread, with eight satellites on board. It is technically two missions, Isro officials said.

This is the first PSLV mission to have payloads for multiple orbits. With this, India has successfully launched 79 satellites for international customers.

On Monday morning, PSLV-C35 blasted-off from the first launch pad (FLP) of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 09.12 am with a 371-kg miniature satellite to provide weather forecasting, cyclone prediction, and tracking services to India. The vehicle also carried seven other satellites into polar the sun-synchronous orbits. The co-passenger satellites were of Algeria, Canada, USA and satellites from IIT-Bombay and PES University, Bengaluru.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, "Moment of immense joy & pride for India. Congratulations to @isro on successful launch of PSLV-C35/SCATSAT-1 & 7 co-passenger satellites. Our space scientists keep scripting history. Their innovative zeal has touched the lives of 125 crore Indians & made India proud worldwide."

A S Kiran Kumar, chairman, Isro, said: "Today (Monday) is a landmark day. Using the PSLV rocket we launched eight satellites."

K Sivan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, said this mission was both exciting and an excellent one and it was the longest one, with the launch spread over 2.15 hours, while the mission was concluded in the shortest time (of 35 days from design to execution).

B Jayakumar, mission director, Isro, said typically a PSLV mission is around 20-25 minutes. Whereas, this PSLV functioned for 2.15 hours.

The mission makes PSLV more competitive in the market. "Whatever the customer demands, we can provide," he said.

The space research organisation is gearing up for launches in the near future, including the much awaited GSLV Mark-III. The geostationary communication satellite GSAT 18 is scheduled to be launched during the first half of October 2016 on an Ariane-5 Launch Vehicle from Ariane Space in French Guiana.