ISRO launches Cryostat-2 with 30 nano satellites on June 23

June 28, 2017

ISRO launches Cryostat-2 with 30 nano satellites on June 23

Take off view of ISRO's PSLV-C38 launcher from SHAR, Sriharikota. (Source: ISRO)

4 months after successfully launching record 104 satellites in a single flight, ISRO achieved another success as its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C38 successfully launched Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on June 23, 2017 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. This was the Fortieth flight and thirty ninth consecutively successful mission of PSLV. This is also the Seventeenth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (an upgraded version of PSLV that uses solid strap-on motors to achieve higher payload capability).

PSLV-C38 blasted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9.29am on June 23. 16 minutes after lift-off, the rocket achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) of 505 km inclined at an angle of 97.44 degree to the equator, where it placed its main payload -- Cartosat-2 Series Satellite -- in orbit. In next seven and half minutes, it ejected the rest 30 satellites in a predetermined sequence.

The mission

PSLV-C38 is the 40^th flight of ISRO, launching a 712 kg Cryostat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites weighting altogether about 243 kg. These co-passenger satellites comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries - 10 from USA, 3 each from Belgium, Italy and UK, 1 each from Austria, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia and one nano satellite from India. The total weight carried by the rocket thus becomes 955kg. With this the total number of Indian satellites launched by PSLV now stands at 48.

Cryostat-2 satellite

Cartosat-2 Series Satellite in the Clean Room at Launch Centre. (Source: ISRO)

The Cartosat-2 series satellite is the primary satellite being carried by the PSLV-C38. Like earlier 5 satellites of the Cryostat series, this is a remote sensing satellite, having better resolution. The previous satellite of this series had a resolution of 0.8 metres and images taken by it had helped Indian Army carry out surgical strikes across the Line of Control last year. The improved satellite has a resolution of 0.6 metres which will help it spot even smaller objects.

According to ISRO, the images sent by Cryostat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

NIUSAT: The nano Indian satellite

NIUSAT: The nano Indian satellite. (Source: ISRO)

NIUSAT is one of the 30 co-passenger satellites that were launched by the rocket PSLV-C38 on June 23. This nano satellite is developed by students of Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education under Noorul Islam University in Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu.

The weight of this satellite is 15 kg and it features a RGP camera with a ground resolution of 25 m and a frame size of 50 km × 50 km. NIUSAT will provide multispectral imagery of agricultural crop which will be used for identifying potential agricultural diseases of the crops around Kanyakumari District and to provide timely assistance to the Disaster Management Support programme. The students of the University had started the project in 2012 and it took them 5 years to complete this.

The 29 international customer nano satellites were launched as part of the commercial arrangements between the Antrix Corporation Ltd – a government of India company and the international customers.

First day images

After separation, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore took over the control of the satellite.

Here are some of the images taken by Cryostat-C38 on the first day of its mission, released by ISRO.