Chennai:
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to achieve yet another milestone with the launch of no less than 31 satellites at one go on June 23. The satellites that are scheduled to be launched from the Sriharikota rocket port on Friday at 9:29 AM include Earth observation satellite Cartosat-2 series weighing 712 kg, 29 foreign and one Indian satellite.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will lift all the satellites. The XL variant of the PSLV rocket is expected to be launched on Friday morning, according to ISRO.
The total weight of the 30 satellites is 243 kg, while the all the 31 satellites including Cartosat weighs about 955 kg, ISRO said. The rocket will release all the satellites into a 505 km polar sun sunchronous orbit (SSO).
The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 nano satellites belonging to 14 countries - Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, and the US and one Indian nano satellite.
The 29 international customer nano satellites will be launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO's commericial arm, the Antrix Corporation Ltd and the international customers.
