The satellites include SCATSAT-1, a satellite for weather studies, IIT-Bombay’s PRATHAM and PISAT from PES University in Bengaluru.
PSLV C-35 of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday launched SCATSAT-1, a satellite for weather studies, and seven other satellites into orbit.
ISRO said that though it has launched several PSLV rockets in the past, the Monday launch is the first mission of PSLV in which the payloads were launched into two different orbits."
About 17 minutes after it lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 9.10 a.m., PSLV C-35 ejected SCATSAT-1 satellite in the polar sun synchronous orbit at an altitude of 730 km.
Besides the 371 kg SCATSAT-1, the other satellites launched were, two satellites designed by Indian educational institutions (PISAT and PRATHAM), three commercial payloads for Algeria (ALSAT-1B, 2B and 1N) and one each for Canada (NLS-19) and the United States (Pathfinder-1).
SCATSAT-1 with a life of five years, would provide weather forecasting services through the generation of wind vector products, ISRO said.
Students at IIT-Bombay celebrate the launch of 'Pratham', one of the satellites carried by the PSLV-C35. Photo: Vivek Bendre
The 10 kg PRATHAM by IIT Bombay intends to estimate the total electron count with a resolution of 1km x 1km location grid, and PISAT (5.25 kg) from PES University in Bengaluru intends to explore remote sensing applications.
Algeria's ALSAT-1B is an earth observation satellite (103 kg), ALSAT-2B a remote sensing satellite (117 kg) and ALSAT-1N (7 kg) a technology demonstrator. NLS-19 of Canada is a technology demonstration micro satellite (8 kg) and Pathfinder-1 is a commercial high resolution imaging micro satellite (44 kg).