SRIHARIKOTA: Three days after its 16th birthday, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle on Wednesday roared its way to success from the Sriharikota spaceport and put in orbit India’s Oceansat-2 and six foreign nano satellites.
This was the 15th successful flight of the launch vehicle in a row.
The first PSLV flight took place on September 20, 1993.
Spectacular mission
It was a spectacular mission. Everything went all right for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as the countdown was smooth and the lift-off perfect at the appointed time of 11.51 a.m.
Then the first stage of the PSLV-C14 came alive and the vehicle galvanised itself as it climbed into the sky. The three other stages too ignited and separated on time and the satellites were precisely injected into orbit.
18-minute flight
At the end of 18 minutes of flight, the PSLV’s fourth stage injected Oceansat-2 into orbit at a velocity of 25,000 km an hour at an altitude of about 728 km. Thereafter, spring-loaded action mechanisms catapulted four nano satellites called Cubesat 1, 2, 3 and 4 into orbit one after the other. The other two nano satellites, Rubinsat 9.1 and 9.2, remained attached to the fourth stage. It implies that the fourth stage went into orbit.
“The PSLV is like a wine. With age, it only improves,” said ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair. He called the launch mission “a fantastic achievement” and “a thrilling moment for the ISRO team.”
