Isro Begins 48-Hour Countdown for Record Satellite Launch on Wednesday

Indian Space Research Organisation has begun the 48-hour countdown for the launch of record 20 satellites in a single mission on June 22 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C34 will be used to carry the satellites, including India's earth observation spacecraft Cartosat-2, from the second launch pad of the space centre at 9.26am on June 22.

SLV-C34 will launch 19 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 560kg at lift-off into a 505km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). Isro said the total weight of all the 20 satellites carried on board PSLV-C34 is about 1,288 kg. The whole mission will get over in around 26 minutes.

The co-passengers include satellites from the US, Canada, Germany and Indonesia as well as two satellites from Indian Universities.

The images sent by Cartosat satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications.

On the other hand, the 1.5 kg Sathyabamasat from Sathyabama University will collect data on green house gases while the 1 kg Swayam satellite from College of Engineering, Pune will provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community.

The mission would carry LAPAN A3 of Indonesia, BIROS of Germany, SKYSAT GEN 2-1 of US, MVV of Germany among the micro satellites, Isro sources had earlier said.

The space agency had earlier sent 10 satellites into orbit in a single mission in 2008.