The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro's) workhorse PSLV-C37 successfully lifted off from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai carrying 104 satellites with it, a first of its kind effort by any space agency in the world. 

With the successful launch today, India scripted history by becoming the first country to launch more than 100 satellites in one go. ISRO made its second successful attempt after the launch of 23 satellites together in June 2015.

PSLV-C37, which was on its 39th mission, took off at 9:28 a.m. and it is carrying the 714 kg CARTOSAT-2 series satellite for earth observation, along with 103 co-passenger satellites. 

While 96 co-passenger satellites belong to USA, five are from International customers of ISRO — Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland and United Arab Emirates. Antrix Corporation Ltd (ANTRIX), the commercial arm of the ISRO, has made arrangements for the nano-satellites belonging to international customers.

Two other Indian nano satellites are also carried by the rocket, and the total weight it would carry is around 1,378 kg. The nano satellites will provide an opportunity for ISRO technology demonstration payloads, provide a standard bus for launch on demand services, said Isro sources.

Cartosat-2

The 714 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C37. This satellite is similar to the earlier four satellites of the Cartosat-2 series. After its injection into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit by PSLV-C37, the satellite will be brought to operational configuration following which it will begin providing regular remote sensing services using its panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras.

The images from Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

The CartoSat 2 series satellite will be injected into a 505 km Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO), following which the satellite will be brought into an operational configuration. The CartoSat-2D is the fifth earth observation satellite in the CartoSat series, Isro had previously placed into orbit.

Source: Business Standard