The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday launched PSLV's SCATSAT-1 at 9:12 am from Sriharikota launch pad in Andhra Pradesh. This launch is said to be ISRO's longest mission spread over two hours and fifteen minutes. The rocket’s main cargo is the 371 kg SCATSAT-1 for ocean and weather related studies. It was placed into a 730 km polar sun synchronous orbit around 17 minutes into the flight. READ: ISRO to launch PSLV’s longest flight SCATSAT-1 at 9:12 am today WATCH VIDEO: 5 Things To Know About ISRO PSLV SCATSAT-1 Launch Here are some important pointers: 1. The 320-tonne PSLV rocket carried eight satellites – three Indian and five foreign. Among the five foreign satellites, three are from Algeria namely Alsat-1B 103kg, Alsat-2B 117kg, Alsat-1N 7kg, and one each from Canada (NLS-19, 8kg) and the US (Pathfinder-44kg). The two other Indian satellites are: Pratham (10kg) built by Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-Bombay) and Pisat (5.25 kg) from PES University, Bengaluru and its consortium. ALSO READ: ‘Our space scientists keep scripting history’: PM Modi on ISRO’s successful launch of PSLV SCATSAT-1 2. The SCATSAT-1 is a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 scatterometer to provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users. 3. This is the first mission of PSLV in which it launched its payloads into two different orbits. 4. The Pratham satellite, developed by IIT-B students, was launched as a piggyback with the ISRO’s ScatSat PSLV. It was launched after a delay of almost eight years. The satellite was conceptualised by two students of the Aerospace Engineering department—Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay and Shashank Tamaskar — in July 2007. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed with ISRO in September 2009, and later extended in 2014. READ: ISRO to launch student satellite Pratham 5. ISRO has been launching multiple satellites with a single rocket for several years, but the real challenge will be to launch several satellites at different orbits with one rocket.
