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Sriharikota / Tribune News Service
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday began the 48-hour countdown for the launch of 20 satellites, weighing a combined 1,288kg.
The satellites will be launched by the national space agency’s workhorse rocket, Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C34, at 9:26am on Wednesday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
The primary payload will be a 727kg Cartostat-2 series satellite, which will be used for earth observation, and there will be 19 other satellites that together weigh about 560kg.
The Cartostat satellite, which is equipped with specialised cameras, will be injected into a 505-km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit and will provide regular remote sensing services. The images sent by the satellite could be used for urban and rural applications, coastal land use, road network monitoring, land use maps and several geographical information system applications.
The co-passenger satellites include 12 from the US, one each from Canada, Germany and Indonesia, as well as two from Indian universities.
The two Indian nano satellites, called Swayam and Satyabamasat, were developed by students from College of Engineering, Pune and Sathyabama University, Chennai, respectively. While Swayam satellite has a payload mass of 1kg, Sathyabamasat has a payload mass of 1.5kg.