ISRO starts 28-hour countdown to launch 31 satellites

The 28-hour countdown to launch 31 satellites, including three of India and 28 of six other countries, by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began at 5.29 am in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh today.

"The 28-hour countdown began at 5.29 a.m. in the mission control here for the rocket launch at 9.28 a.m. on Friday," said the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on its website.

The first space mission in 2018 onboard the PSLV-C40 comes four months after a similar rocket failed to deliver the country's eighth navigation satellite in the earth's lower orbit on August 31 last year.


The PSLV-C39 was unsuccessful as the heat shield failed to separate.

As an observational satellite, Cartosat will beam high-quality images for cartographic, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation and utility management like road network monitoring.

The Indian satellites are 710 kg Cartosat-2 series for earth observation, a 100 kg micro satellite and a 5 kg nano satellite. The 28 other satellites are from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, the UK and the US.

The total weight of all 31 satellites is 1,323 kg. The entire launch of satellites is expected to happen over a period of 2 hours and 21 seconds

"The micro satellite will be India's 100th satellite in space," Satellite Centre Director M. Annadurai said on Tuesday.

The 28 international customer satellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between ISRO and its commercial arm 'Antrix Corporation Ltd'.

India plans to have at least one rocket launch a month this year.

ISRO will also be launching its second lunar mission (Chandrayaan-2) to the Moon, with an orbiter, lander and rover for the first time.

Advanced communication satellites GSAT-6A and GSAT-29 will also be deployed in geosynchronous orbit (36,000km above earth) through the future launches.

(Inputs from IANS & PTI)