SRIHARIKOTA
(ANDHRA PRADESH): Indian
space agency ISRO today launched a record 20 satellites into space in a
26-minute flight from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh's
Sriharikota.
Here is the 10-point cheat sheet
1. The 320 tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-34 (PSLV) is
carrying 17 foreign small satellites from Canada, Indonesia, Germany and the US
but the main passenger is a 727 kg Indian earth observation satellite called
Cartosat, which can take images at sub-meter resolution.
2. The launch also takes into orbit two Indian academic
community built satellites, Sathyabhamasat and Swayam.
3. ISRO has also launched 13 US-made small satellites into
space. This includes an earth imaging satellite made by Terra Bella, a
Google-owned company. The 110 kg Google satellite called
SkySat Gen- 2 is
capable of taking sub-meter resolution images and high definition video.
4. On its 36th launch, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle flies 20 satellites, weighing about 1288 kg,
into space at a cost about 10 times less than other space agencies.
5. Cartosat-2 Series is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A
and 2B, and 19 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 560 kg at
lift-off would be injected into a 505-km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.
6. Launching 20 satellites in a single mission is like
"allowing birds to fly in space", ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar had told NDTV. "Each of these small
objects that you are putting into space will carry out their own activity,
which is independent of the other, and each of them will live a wonderful life
for a finite period for which they have been designed," Dr Kumar had said.
7. With 20 satellites, the Indian space agency is set to beat
its previous record of placing 10 satellites in April 2008. Currently, Russia
holds the world record for placing the most number of satellites in a single
launch. Its Dnepr rocket launched 37 satellites in 2014.
8. The mission would carry LAPAN A3 of Indonesia, BIROS of
Germany, SKYSAT GEN 2-1 of US, MVV of Germany among the micro satellites, ISRO
sources had earlier said.
9. With this launch, ISRO is ready to take on private
billionaires like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos who have entered the space launch
business and offer far cheaper space launches.
10. Till now,
ISRO has launched 57 satellites for foreign vendors from about 20 countries,
earning about $ 100 million in the bargain.
Representative
Image
Source:
NDTV
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