India launches remote-sensing satellite Oceansat2 (Lead)
September 23rd, 2009 - 1:44 pm ICT by IANS
By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Sep 23 (IANS) India successfully launched its 16th remote-sensing satellite Oceansat-2 and six small Europeans satellites on board a rocket that blasted off from here at 11.51 a.m. Wednesday.
The 44.4-metre tall, 230-tonne Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) freed itself from the launch pad at the spaceport and lifted itself up, lugging the 960-kg Oceansat-2 and the six nano satellites all together weighing 20 kg.
In copybook style, the rocket first flung out Oceansat-2 at an altitude of 720 km above the earth in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), followed by the four nano satellites - also called Cubesats, each weighing one kg. The remaining two, each weighing eight kg, were attached to the rocket’s fourth stage.
The six nano satellites are owned by European universities - four from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey. They were launched under a commercial agreement.
Soon after the satellites were put into orbit, Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) satellite tracking centres started monitoring them.
Vice President Hamid Ansari witnessed the ISRO’s successful launch.
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Tags: altitude, european universities, europeans, hamid ansari, indian rocket, indian space research, indian space research organisation, isro satellite, jagannathan, kg, launch pad, launch vehicle, nano, polar satellite, remote sensing satellite, satellite tracking, satellites, spaceport, synchronous orbit, vice president