ISRO launched 104 Satellites in a single launch in 2017

Speed Post News Network

New Delhi : In 2017, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched 104 satellites, in a single launch, onboard PSLV-C37 on February 15, and 31 satellites, in a single launch, on-board PSLV-C38 on June 23.

These satellites include – Two Indian Cartosat-2 series satellites, two Indian Nano-Satellites, one Nano satellite from Indian University and 130 foreign satellites from 19 countries, viz. Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Israel, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Switzerland, The Netherlands, UAE, UK and USA.

The Cartosat-2 series satellites are placed in a sun synchronous orbit with a designed mission life of 5 years. The main objective of these satellites is to provide high resolution images of earth’s surface at sub-meter resolution (Black & White image) and at 2 meter resolution (4-band coloured image).

India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark-II (GSLV-F09) successfully launched the 2,230 kg South Asia Satellite (GSAT-9) into its planned Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on May 5, 2017. The launch of GSLV was its eleventh and took place from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharikota, the spaceport of India. This was the fourth consecutive success achieved by GSLV carrying indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage, according to a PIB release.

The first developmental flight (GSLV MkIII-D1) of India’s heavy lift launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III was successfully conducted on June 5, 2017, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota with the launch of GSAT-19 satellite. On June 29, GSAT-17 became India’s third communication satellite to successfully reach orbit in two months. GSAT-17 was launched by the European Ariane 5 Launch Vehicle from Kourou, French Guiana, according to the PIB release.

AstroSat, India’s multi-wavelength space telescope completed two years in orbit during the year and has successfully accomplished the difficult task of measuring X-ray polarisation. Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) successfully completed three years in its orbit on September 24, 2017, surviving well beyond its designed mission life of six months. All Scientific payloads continue to provide valuable data of Mars surface and its atmosphere. Mars Colour Camera on-board MOM has acquired more than 700 images of Martian surface.

ISRO and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)/NASA are jointly working on the development of Dual Frequency (L&S band) Synthetic Aperture Radar Imaging Satellite named as NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR). The L-band SAR is being developed by JPL/NASA, while ISRO is developing S-band SAR. The L & S band microwave data obtained from this satellite will be useful for variety of applications including natural resources mapping and monitoring, estimating agricultural biomass over full duration of crop cycle, assessing soil moisture, and monitoring of floods and oil slicks, according to the release.