Ajay Kanth Sriharikota, Apr 28 (PTI) Setting a record, India's Polar rocket today successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission. The ten pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) carry the heaviest luggage--824 kgs--and put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.
At the end of the 52-hour countdown, the PSLV-C9, with a lift-off mass of 230 tonne, blasted off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and soared into the clear sky in a textbook launch at 9:23 am. Fourteen minutes after lift off, the fourth stage of the ISRO's workhorse launch vehicle, in its 13th flight, injected the ten satellites, into the 635 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO).
This is for the first time that ISRO has put ten satellites in orbit in a single launch. This is also PSLV's twelfth successful flight.
A Russian rocket last year delivered 16 satellites in the outer space but the Russian launch vehicle carried a lesser payload of only around 300 kg. Besides the 690 kg Indian remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A and the 83 kg Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1), the rest eight Nano Satellites were from abroad.
This is the third time, the PSLV has been launched in the core alone version, without the six solid propellant first stage strap-on motors. Terming the launch "satisfactory", ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair said "all parameters worked wonderfully well.
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