ISRO Launches Earth Monitoring Satellite PSLV-C43

Sriharikota (AP), November 29: Adding another feather to its cap, ISRO's workhorse rocket PSLV-C43 Thursday successfully injected into orbit India's earth observation satellite HysIS. The 30 other co-passenger international satellites including those from the United States of America and Australia among others, will soon be placed into orbit.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown. The HySIS was placed in orbit 17 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off. ISRO PSLV-C43 Launch Today: HysIS Satellite to Be Launched, 30 Satellites From 8 Countries on Board; Here’s All You Need to Know.

ISRO chief K Sivan and the space agency's scientists broke into cheers as the earth observation satellite was injected into sun-synchronous polar orbit. The primary mission of the Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS), whose mission life is five years, is to study the earth's surface in visible near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission, which is on its 45th flight.

The mass of the spacecraft is about 380 kg, and the satellite would be placed in 636 km-polar sun synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.957 degree, ISRO said.

The co-passenger satellites have been contracted for launch through ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited. PSLV-C43, is the 'Core Alone' version of PSLV. It is the lightest version of the launch vehicle. This is ISRO's second launch in the month. The space agency had launched its latest communication satellite GSAT-29 on board GSLV MkIII-D2 on November 14.