Our Correspondent
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is all set to launch the 48th mission of the PSLV series — PSLV-C46 on Wednesday. This rocket will be carrying an earth observation satellite RISAT-2B in the PSLV-Core Alone rocket’s fourth stage.
This is the 72nd launch vehicle mission; 36th from the FLP and the 14th flight of PSLV in the core-alone configuration. Scheduled for an early morning launch if the weather holds, the rocket will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. According to ISRO, RISAT-2B will be placed in an orbit 555 Kilometers from Earth at a 37-degree inclination.
RISAT-2B stands for ‘Radar Imaging Satellite-2B’ and will be the second mission in the series to observe weather conditions using radar imaging. Once launched the RISAT-2B will help in monitoring the weather conditions 24×7. ISRO says that RISAT-2 was the first satellite in the series, launched for the purpose of surveillance and the RISAT-1 which was launched later became country’s first all-weather radar imaging satellite.
Provisions for the launch to be viewed live by the general public in its newly-built viewing gallery at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre has been made by ISRO for the second time.
As a ritual, the ISRO chairman K Sivan also visited Lord Venkateshwara temple with the model of PSLV-C46 to seek blessings for a successful mission.
According to ISRO, this will be the 48th PSLV launch, and the 14th Core-Alone (CA) mission, and in this version the rocket does not have the six strap-on boosters that larger rockets do, and will use four core stages of the PSLV to launch its payload.
As reported earlier, the PSLV was the first of ISRO’s rockets to be equipped with liquid rocket stages.
From the beginning of this year, the Indian Space agency has already launched two major missions in space including PSLV-C44 which had launched Microsat-R and Kalamsat-V2, the fourth stage of which was used as an experimental platform.
Also, GSAT-31, the communication satellite was successfully launched from Kourou, French Guiana.