New Delhi: A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) successfully blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 5:59 am on Monday, carrying earth observation satellite EOS-04 along with two smaller satellites INSPIREsat-1 and INS-2TD.
This was Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s first launch of the year.
PSLV-C52 injected EOS-04 into an intended sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529 km altitude at 0617am IST, ISRO said.
EOS-04, weighing 1,710 kg, is a Radar Imaging Satellite designed to provide high-quality images under all weather conditions. The images can be used for agriculture, forestry and plantations, soil moisture and hydrology and flood mapping.
INSPIREsat-1 is a student satellite developed by the Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) in association with the Laboratory of Atmospheric & Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder. NTU, Singapore and NCU, Taiwan have also contributed to the programme.
The satellite is carrying two scientific payloads designed to improve the understanding of ionosphere dynamics and Sun’s coronal heating processes.
ISRO’s INS-2TD is a technology demonstrator satellite, which is a precursor to the India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B). It has a thermal imaging camera for assessment of land surface temperature, water surface temperature of wetland or lakes, delineation of vegetation (crops and forest) and thermal inertia (day and night).
