India's launches 31 Foreign & ISRO Satellites in a single mission

Indian space agency ISRO successfully executed the launch of 31 satellites in one single mission. The launch was carried out in Sriharikota launchpad this Friday morning.

PSLV C40 Cartosat-2 Satellite Mission

On Friday morning, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) successfully added one more feat to its long list of achievements. ISRO launched 31 satellites on a single mission, ending the doubt raised due to the last failure.

The Liftoff has carried out at 9:28 AM IST (03:58 GMT). The launch carried out at Shriharikota launchpad using Polar Launch Satellite Vehicle (PSLV).

Among 31 Satellites there was three Indian satellite. Among them, there is one “Cartosat” (Earth Observation Satellite) as well. Cartoset is India’s 100th satellite, & has been objected by Pakistan in past.

The Cartosat is a Remote Sensing Satellite (RSS) with panchromatic and multi-spectral visual recording devices with a shelf life of 44,000 hours or 5 years (approximately).

Apart from Cartosat, other satellites include one micro and nano-satellite from India.

ISRO PSLV SATELLITE C40 LAUNCH TRAJECTORY

There are three micro and 25 nanosatellites from six countries. These countries are France, South Korea, Britain, Canada, Finland, and the USA.

Only last year, in February 2017, India amazed the world by launching 104 satellites, on a single mission. This was the and still is the most number of satellites launched in a single mission.

Before India, this record was held by Russia by launching 37 satellites in 2014.

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About PSLV-C40 Cartosat-2 Series Satellite Mission

PSLV-C40, as the name suggests, PSLV stands for Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, C40 is mission series code.

Following are the Salient features of PSLV C40 Mission

Satellite mass	710 Kg
Orbit type	Circular polar Sun Synchronous
Orbit height	505 km
Orbit inclination	97.47 degree
Orbit period	94.72 min
Power	Solar arrays generating 986 Watts; Two Li-Ion batteries
Attitude control	Reaction wheels, Magnetic torquers and Hydrazine thrusters
Design life	5 years

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 42nd flight (PSLV-C40), is unique in following way

The satellites were launched in multiple orbits, the microsat was dropped in 359 KM Orbit while rest 30 satellites were dropped in 550 KM orbit.
This was done through “Multiple Burn Technology”, in MRT the rocket engine is turned off and on to control the height.
Mission period was 141 minutes which is longest in ISRO’s history.