28 hour countdown of launching 31 satellites starts today

The 28-hour countdown for the launch of 31 satellites on Friday morning is starting from Thursday morning at 05

Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have cleared the 28-hour countdown of PSLV-C38/Cartosat-2 Satellite Series mission for Thursday starting at 05:29 a.m.

The ISRO will launch earth observation satellite Cartosat and 30 other satellites (29 foreign and one Indian) on Friday morning at 9.29 a.m. from the Sriharikota.

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), will launch the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 243 kg at lift-off into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).

PSLV-C38 will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. This will be the seventeenth flight of PSLV in 'XL' configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries namely, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom, and United States of America as well as one Nano satellite from India. The total weight of all these satellites carried on-board PSLV-C38 is about 955 kg.

The 29 International customer Nano satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS) and the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.