What is ISRO’s PSLV-C42 mission?

ISRO mentioned that NovaSAR is intended for forest mapping, land use, and ice cover monitoring as well as flood and disaster monitoring while S1-4 is a high-resolution satellite that shall be used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management, and disaster monitoring.

The two satellites shall be used for climate monitoring activities like forest mapping, land use, ice cover monitoring and disaster monitoring. (Photo Courtesy: ISRO)

PSLV-C42 or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C42 of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched two satellites of the United Kingdom from Sriharikota on Sunday. The mission entailed launching satellites — NovaSAR and S1-4 — into ‘Sun Synchronous Orbit’. The satellites launched into this orbit are usually used for imaging, reconnaissance and weather forecasts.

The PSLV-C42 is the lightest version of the PSLV and flew in its core-alone version without the six strap-on motors.

ISRO mentioned that NovaSAR is intended for forest mapping, land use, and ice cover monitoring as well as flood and disaster monitoring while S1-4 is a high-resolution satellite that will be used for surveying resources, environment monitoring, urban management, and disaster monitoring.

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The PSLV-C42 rose into the skies at 10.08 p.m and injected the satellites into orbit 17 minutes and 45 seconds after lift-off, placing them in the sun-synchronous orbit 583 km from the earth’s surface.

ISRO chairman K Sivan was quoted as saying by PTI that the mission was a success and congratulated the scientists involved in the mission. “Today I am extremely happy to announce that PSLV-C42 carrying two customer satellites NovaSAR and S1-4 placed them precisely in orbit. Within the next six months, 10 satellite missions and eight launch vehicle missions would be launched – one every two weeks,” he was quoted as saying.

The launch of the two British satellites comes almost six months after ISRO successfully placed the INRSS-1I navigation satellite in the orbit on April 12.

Stages of PSLV-C42 launch.

The commercial arm of ISRO, Antrix Corporation earned more than ₹220 crore on the launch of the two satellites owned by Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL).

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ISRO has a large number of foreign and domestic clients that avail its services for sending satellites into the outer space. A lot of academic centres and universities have also approached ISRO for launching their satellites.