SRIHARIKOTA (AP), July 30: ISRO on Sunday successfully launched its proven PSLV rocket carrying seven Singaporean satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre here and placed them into intended orbits.
Around 23 minutes after lift-off, the primary satellite got separated and it was followed by six other co-passenger satellites, which were deployed into the intended orbits sequentially, ISRO said.
This ISRO mission, which comes after the much-awaited Chandrayaan-3 launch earlier this month, is being undertaken by its commercial arm NewSpace India Limited (NSIL).
ISRO Chairman S Somanath said, “The PSLV-C56 carrying seven satellites including primary satellite DS-SAR and six co-passenger satellites have been successfully placed in the right orbits.
“This is the mission of the PSLV for NSIL and I want to congratulate the customers sponsored by Government of Singapore for having this mission on board PSLV and their continued faith in our PSLV for deploying the spacecrafts (satellites) from Singapore,” he said at the Mission Control Centre.
“Congratulations once again to NSIL for the Singapore satellites which have been onboard this mission and the very perfect orbit that this time we have got. But at this moment I thank all of you for watching this mission early morning this day and supporting us and congratulating us and we want to specifically tell you that we are going to come back with another PSLV mission soon in the month of August or early September” he said.
On the successful launch and separation of the satellites, ISRO posted on Twitter, “PSLV-C56/DS-SAR Mission: The mission is successfully accomplished. PSLV-C56 vehicle launched all seven satellites precisely into their intended orbits. Thanks to @NSIL_India and Singapore, for the contract.” New Space India Ltd Chairman and Managing Director D Radhakrishnan said, “My heartiest congratulations to team ISRO for the PSLV project across various centres for giving us such a marvelous and precise mission and I don't think the customer would have asked for anything better than what we have just seen in today's mission.
“I would say in the history of our PSLV launches, commercial launches for international customers, a single customer (Singapore government) coming to PSLV continuously four times for a dedicated launch has been a real record and that shows the kind of trust the customer has laid on the teams here. I am aware Singapore is planning many more missions in the future and they will continue to have trust on our services and the most reliable launcher, the PSLV that we have offered the service, and I am sure they will offer us many more opportunities for us to give them the best launch in the international community.” he said.
In today's dedicated commercial mission, the primary payload carried by ISRO's trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle is the DS-SAR Radar Imaging Earth Observation satellite, which has been developed under a partnership between DSTA (representing the Government of Singapore) and ST Engineering, Singapore.
The 360-kg satellite, upon deployment at an altitude of 535 km into a Near-equatorial Orbit (NEO), would be used to support the satellite imagery requirements of various agencies within the Government of Singapore.
