Team News Riveting
Sriharikota, February 14
India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C52 (PSLV-C52) lifted off on early Monday morning with the country’s latest radar imaging satellite EOS-04 and two other small satellites from the rocket port in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The PSLV rocket carrying 1,710 kg Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-04), formerly RISAT-1A, as its primary passenger and two small satellites INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD as co-passengers blasted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at 5.59 a.m.
The 44.4 metre tall PSLV-C52 rocket weighing 321 tons slowly rose up towards the skies with thick orange flame at its tail. The rocket gained speed as it went up while emitting a rolling thunder sound.
The EOS-04, is also called Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) that has been designed to provide high-quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry, and plantations, flood mapping, soil moisture & hydrology. The spacecraft will collect observation data in C-Band completing the observations done by Resourcesat, Cartosat, and RISAT-2B series. The satellite has an operating life of a decade.
This was the first launch of PSLV since the failure of the EOS-03 mission launched last year. The space agency had declared the mission as failed citing a technical anomaly with the system.
The first launch of 2022 has set in motion ISRO’s plans to conduct 18 other missions this year, including high profile launch of Chandrayan-3 to the moon and the much-awaited uncrewed launch of the country’s Gaganyaan mission.
The 54th mission of India’s workhorse PSLV saw the launcher climb up in the SSO. The space agency plans to conduct the PSLV-C53 mission in March, which will carry OCEANSAT-3 and INS 2B ANAND into orbit.
ISRO Chief S Somnath had earlier said that the agency conduct five major satellite launches in the coming three months and a total of 19 missions this year.
