ISRO's PSLV-C47, which carries India's earth observation satellite CARTOSAT-3 and 13 nano-satellites from the US, lifted off from Sriharikota today. At 09:50am, PSLV-C47 successfully injected CARTOSAT-3 into orbit
CARTOSAT-3 is a third generation agile advanced satellite having high resolution imaging capability.
With an overall mass of 1,625kgs, CARTOSAT-3 would address the increased user's demands for the large scale urban planning, rural resource and infrastructure development, coastal land use and land cover.
PSLV-C47 is the 21st flight of PSLV in the 'XL' configuration (with six solid strap-on motors), ISRO said.
The 13 commercial nano satellites from the United States are being carried as part of the commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), department of space.
Among the 13 nano-satellites are FLOCK-4P, 12 in numbers, with mission objective of earth observation, and one satellite named MESHBED, whose mission objective is communication test bed.
ISRO said Wednesday's launch would be the 74th launch vehicle mission from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
The mission life of CARTOSAT-3 is five years. The launch of CARTOSAT-3 and 13 other commercial nano satellites follows ISRO's moon mission Chandrayaan-2 on July 22, which failed to manage a soft landing on the moon, and would have been the country's first had it been successful. While the Orbiter continues to revolve around the moon, the lander 'Vikram' and rover 'Pragyan' were rendered non- functional after a hard-landing on the lunar surface on September 7.
-Inputs from PTI
