CHENNAI : India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its 51st mission (PSLV-C49), will launch Earth Observation Satellite-EOS-01 as primary payload along with nine international satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR Range, Sriharikota on November seven.
The launch is tentatively scheduled at 1502 hrs from the First Launch Pad, subject to weather conditions, ISRO said in an update on Thursday.
This would be ISRO’s first launch mission in 2020 after its launch activities were crippled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdown.
EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
The customer satellites are being launched under commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), Department of Space.
PSLV-C49 would be followd by PSLV-C50 with a communication satellite GSAT-12R next month, besides the much-awaited first technology demonstrator–the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
For the SSLV launch, the first launch pad would be reconfigured after the PSLV-C49 mission to house the shorter SSLV which would be a three stage vehicle filled with soild propellants.
To ensure that the launch preparations started gaining momentum, especially after some of its personnel in SHAR Range tested positive for COVID-19 and recovered, ISRO has developed a Virtual Launch Control Centre to test the rocket systems at the spaceport remotely from the VSSC in Thiruvananthapuram.
This was done to reduce travel risk of ISRO personnel in view of the pandemic.
The last mission that took place from Sriharikota was PSLV-C48 which had ferried “spy” satellite RISAT-2BR1 on December 11, 2019.
ISRO had earlier scheduled the launch of GISAT-1 satellite onboard GSLV-F10 in March this year. But the mission was postponed due to technical reasons before the COVID-pandemic had slowed down its activities.
(UNI)
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