India sends foreign satellites into space

India has launched 436-kg EMISAT satellite and 28 foreign nano-satellites on board ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikoa on 1 April 2019.

The rocket, PSLV-C45, has 28 co-passenger satellites belonging to Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and the US, said India Space Research Organization.

ISRO chief K Sivan said the EMISAT satellite was injected into 749 km orbit, 17 minutes after the lift-off.

The 28 international customer satellites, together weighing about 220 kg, are from four countries, namely, Lithuania (2), Spain (1), Switzerland (1) and USA (24). These foreign satellites were launched as part of commercial arrangements.

The payloads carried by PS4 are Automatic Identification System from ISRO, Automatic Packet Repeating System from AMSAT, India and Advanced Retarding Potential Analyzer for ionospheric studies from Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology.

ISRO Chairman Dr K Sivan congratulated the launch vehicle and satellite teams involved in the mission.

“Today’s PSLV mission was unique in several ways. It was a four strap-on new variant, the vehicle achieved three different orbits and for the first the PS4 stage is powered by solar panels,” Dr Sivan said.

He added that a new PSLV team executed today’s mission.

Dr Sivan also placed on record the significant involvement of the industry in this mission. fiinews.com