Chennai: The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket carrying 19 satellites lifted off successfully from ISRO’s spaceport at Sriharikota.
At 10.24 am the rocket lifted off from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Sunday. With this rocket, 18 other satellites are also being sent into space, including the 637 kg Brazilian satellite Amazonia-1. 13 of these are from the US.
India’s first space mission for 2021 is one of the longest for a PSLV rocket and is expected to conclude 1 hour, 55 minutes and 7 seconds into its flight.
With the latest mission, India has so far slung a total of 342 foreign satellite.
Amazonia-1 is the optical earth observation satellite of National Institute for Space Research (INPE). Amazonia-1 would further strengthen the existing structure by providing remote sensing data to users for monitoring deforestation in the Amazon region and analysis of diversified agriculture across the Brazilian territory, ISRO said.
The 18 co-passenger satellites include four from IN-SPACe (three UNITYsats from consortium of three Indian academic institutes (Jeppiaar Institute of Technology, Sriperumbudur, G.H.Raisoni College of Engineering, Nagpur and Sri Shakthi Institute of Engineering and Technology, Coimbatore) and One Satish Dhawan Sat from Space Kidz India and 14 from NSIL.
ISRO President K.K. Sivan told the news agency that the countdown for the rocket launch at 10.24 minutes on Sunday has started at 8.54 on Saturday morning.