PSLV ‘high-five’ sends India on higher orbit
Nellore, July 12: Proving its reliability once again, the workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-15 on Monday placed the 694-kg Cartosat-2B, a remote sensing satellite, along with four smaller satellites successfully in their designated orbits.
Among them was Studsat, a 650-gram pico satellite built by 40 students belonging to seven engineering colleges in Hyderabad and Bengaluru.
From the city, students from Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology, Institute of Aeronautical Engineering and Vignan Institute of Technology and Sciences participated in the mission.
Three engineering students, Ms Swetha Prasad and Mr Chetan Angadi of Bengaluru and Mr Harish Rao of Karimnagar witnessed the launch from the control room at the spaceport at Sriharikota.
Once it settled in orbit, Studsat began beaming pictures to the Satellite Ground Tracking Laboratory established at Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology (NMIT) at Bengaluru where students acquired the images.
The 44.4-metre PSLV took off flawlessly on its 16th mission from the first launching pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota at 9.22 am, after a 51-hour countdown. Apart from the Cartosat-2B and Studsat, it injected into orbit Algeria’s 116 kg Alsat-2A, two Canadian and a Swiss satellites.
After a 20-minute flight, the rocket released the satellites into their specified circular orbit 637 km above the earth. Cartosat-2B, an advanced remote sensing satellite built by Isro, is the 17th in the series. It can provide imagery with a resolution of 0.8 metres and cover 9.6 km in one picture.
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