Sriharikota : ISRO's PSLV C45 lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here on Monday, carrying India's EMISAT satellite along with 28 nano satellites of global customers. As the 27-hour countdown concluded, the nearly 50-metre tall rocket, a new variant of ISRO's trusted work horse PSLV-QL, blasted off from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 125 km from here, at 9.27 am.
The EMISAT satellite is aimed at electromagnetic measurement. The mission marks several firsts to the credit of the space agency as it would manoeuvre satellites in various orbits and orbital experiments, including on maritime satellite applications. According to ISRO, a new variant of the rocket PSLV-QL equipped with four Strap-On motors in the first stage is used for the launch.
PSLV, also used in India's two key missions, "Chandrayan" in 2008 and Mars Orbiter in 2013, is a reliable and versatile launch vehicle for ISRO with 39 consecutive successful flights till June, 2017 and five-in-a-row from January 2018. The rocket has encountered only two failures so far, its maiden developmental flight ended unsuccessful way back in 1993. In September, 2017, the flight went off without any hitch but the IRNSS-1H Satellite could not be released into orbit after the PSLV-C39's heat shield failed to open on reaching the orbit. PTI
