ISRO successfully puts Oceansat-2, six other foreign ‘nano’ satellites into orbit

India has successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C14) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota (SHAR Range) in Andhra Pradesh, carrying as payload the country’s ocean-monitoring satellite named Oceansat-2.

Image: Oceansat-2

Along with the Oceansat-2, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) also launched 6 other “nano” satellites into orbit – 4 of them from Germany and 1 each from Turkey and Switzerland.

The 7 satellites took off within a span of 20 minutes.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C14) – the 44.4-metre-tall, 4-stage, 230-tonne rocket – blasted off without firing its 6 strap-on motors since all the 7 satellites combined weighed only less than 1,000 kilogrammes. The Oceansat-2 alone weighs 960 kilogrammes.

Eighteen minutes after the blastoff from the Second Launch Pad of the SHAR Range, the PSLV-C14 successfully injected the Oceansat-2 into the desired orbit – 720 kilometres above the Earth, with an inclination of 98.28 degrees to the equator.

The cuboid-shaped Oceansat-2 satellite, which has been designed to last 5 years, is intended to study the interactions that the oceans have with the atmosphere.

The satellite also will be used for sea-state forecasting, weather forecasting, coastal zone studies, climate studies as well as to identify potential fishing zones.

The Oceansat-2 satellite is the ISRO’s second in the series of the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites that are meant for ocean research.

Photo: A PSLV launch

G Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, said after the launch that the Oceansat-2 will give continuity to the applications of the Oceansat-1 satellite, which was launched in 1999.

The Oceansat-2 carries with it 2 devices – one, the Ocean Colour Monitor and the other, a Microwave Scatterometer that helps track the onset of the monsoon by measuring the wind speed on the ocean surface.

All the information collected by the Oceansat-2 will be made available to scientists worldwide within 6 months, Madhavan Nair said.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, the launch of the 16th flight mission of the PSLV-C14 – costing Rs 70 crore – was “flawless and in textbook-precision.”

Vice-President Hameed Ansari, who witnessed the blastoff of the spaceship, congratulated the scientists of the ISRO for the successful launch.

Prime Minister Manmohan, in a message, lauded the ISRO team who worked for the successful launch of the Oceansat-2 satellite, saying that the mission “will herald a new beginning in our understanding of the oceans.”

The PSLV, the Prime Minister added, has once again demonstrated its versatility and reliability.
The PSLV, the ISRO’s workhouse, has performed successfully on 14 occasions out of its earlier 15 flights from 1993 to 2009 and has put 32 various satellites in orbit – 16 of them Indian, and the 16 others for customers abroad.

It was the same Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle that successfully carried the Moon probe Chandrayaan-1. And, the launch Oceansat-2 satellite was the first major satellite launch of the ISRO since the Chandrayaan-1.

Madhavan Nair told reporters after the spectacular launch of the PSLV-C14 that the Indian Space Research Organisation is “well on course” to launch the Chandrayaan-II, with an orbiter and Moon Lander getting ready within the next 4 years.

Preliminary design for the Chandrayaan-II, Madhavan Nair explained, has been completed, and the spaceship to the Moon will be launched by the end of 2013 or in early 2014.