The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the 51st mission of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Saturday. The carrier vehicle PSLV C49 will deliver 10 satellites in all with EOS-01 as the primary one. The EOS-01, an earth observation satellite, was intended to provide agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.
The nine customer satellites are from Lithuania (1), Luxembourg (4) and USA (4).The carrier was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 3.12pm. Earlier, the launch time was at 3.02pm.Soon after the lift off, EOS-01 and all other nine customer satellites successfully separated and injected into the orbit.
This is the first mission by ISRO in 2020. ISRO said that the customer satellites were being launched under a commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), department of space.Filling of fuel for the second stage (PS2), fourth stage (PS4) and oxidiser for PS4 of PSLV-C49 had been completed, it tweeted.Amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) outbreak in the country which has affected over 8.46 million people, the viewing gallery has been closed during the launch, and gathering of media personnel is not planned at the space centre, the agency said.
