ISRO or the Indian Space Research Organisation has successfully launched five British commercial satellites on board PSLV-C28 from in the heaviest commercial mission ever undertaken by it.
ISRO workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C28 placed the five satellites in sun synchronous orbit about 20 minutes after lift-off at 9.58 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
These satellites can image any target on the Earth’s surface daily.
Major application areas include surveying the resources on earth and its environment, managing urban infrastructure and monitoring disasters .
The life of the mission is seven years. Watch the launch video:
Watch the official video of the PSLV-C28 mission here .
PSLV’s 30th mission saw the launch of three identical DMC3 optical earth observation satellites, built by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), UK, and two auxiliary satellites.
The three DMC3 satellites, each weighing 447 kg, was launched into a Sun—Synchronous Orbit (SSO) using the high-end version of PSLV-XL.
Previous successful launches by ISRO — Mars Orbiter Mission which was launched in November 5, 2013 and Chandrayaan-1 launched in October 22, 2008 were with similar PSLV-XL variants.
In addition to the three DMC3 satellites, PSLV C28 also carries two auxiliary satellites from UK — CBNT-1, a technology demonstrator earth observation micro satellite built by SSTL, and De-OrbitSail, a technology demonstrator nano satellite built by Surrey Space Centre.
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