Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle|PSLV Indian Rocket|PSLV-C15 Successfully Launched-Places 5 satellites into Orbit| Pics & Photos of PSLV-Science, Technology

India’s space aspirations received a major boost on this morning when India’s indigenously built PSLV rocket successfully placed 5 satellites into orbit. The rocket took off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 9:22 am IST on July 12.
The PSLV C15 carried five satellites, which also included a remote sensing satellite, the Cartosat 2B and one pico satellite called the STUDSAT made by engineering college students of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. The other satellites were Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland. This launch comes barely three months after the failure of the GSLV D3, which failed to complete its mission and crashed into the Bay of Bengal.
The Cartosat 2B happens to be the latest remote sensing satellite to be launched by India. It joins its siblings the Cartosat-2 and 2A, both of which are currently in service. Alsat from Algeria, too is a remote sensing satellite and tips the scales at 116 kg. The other nano satellites are quite lightweight weighing just six kilos. The satellite designed by the engineering students is even smaller and weighs just a kilo.
Since its first launch in 1994, the PSLV has so far placed 17 Indian and 22 foreign satellites into orbit – making it one of the most successful launch vehicles ever – worldwide.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, commonly known by its abbreviation PSLV, is an expendable launch system developed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites into sun synchronous orbits, a service that was, until the advent of the PSLV, commercially viable only from Russia. PSLV can also launch small size satellites into geostationary transfer orbit (GTO). The PSLV has launched 41 satellites (19 Indian and 22 from other countries) into a variety of orbits till date. In April 2008, it successfully launched 10 satellites in one go, breaking a world record previously held by Russia.

An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has successfully launched ten satellites. The 44-metre long rocket lifted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 03:53:51 GMT (09:24 local time), and reached a polar, Sun-synchronous low Earth orbit a little over seven minutes later. Following burnout of the fourth stage of the carrier rocket, the payloads were released. The PSLV flew in the CA, or Core Alone, configuration, with no solid rocket boosters around the first stage.

The ten satellites aboard the rocket will be used for several purposes by a variety of organisations. The primary payload, Cartosat-2A, is a remote sensing satellite, which will be operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). IMS-1, also known as TWSAT, another ISRO remote sensing satellite, was the secondary payload. In addition, eight commercial payloads were flown, as part of the Nanosat Launch Service-4 and 5 programmes. There satellites were Cute 1.7+APD-2 and SEEDS-2 for the University of Tokyo, Japan, CanX-2 and CanX-6 for the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies, Canada, Delfi-C3 for the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, AAUSAT-II for the University of Aalborg, Denmark, COMPASS-1 for Aachen University, Germany, and RUBIN-8 for German aerospace company OHB System.

"The rocket will put into orbit five satellites – remote sensing satellite Cartosat-2B from India, Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland, and a very small satellite called Studsat built by seven engineering students in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka".

The four-stage vehicle had been fully assembled in its launch pad and the mating with Cartosat-2B and other satellites had been completed. The rocket will blast off carrying also three nano satellites – NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from Canada and Switzerland, and StudSat developed by students of engineering colleges in Bangalore and Hyderabad.