The Indian space odyssey crossed a milestone, as the fully-indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) here, 100 km north of Chennai, and precisely injected two foreign satellites into their near-planned orbits to make the 100th Indian space mission a grand success. Despite a two-minute delay in the take-off of the PSLV’s 22nd flight from the first launch pad here, zooming into a balmy sky at 9:53am against the initial window of 9:51am, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s workhorse yet again proved its mettle.Spewing black fumes as it roared into the sky, the 44 metre tall, 230-tonne heavy PSLV-C21 performed well in all the four stages of its pre-determined trajectory and first injected “Spot-6,” the latest generation earth imaging remote sensing satellite built by France, into a Polar orbit after about 18 minutes. The rocket then ejected a 15-kg Japanese micro-satellite “Proiteres,” to the delight of the space scientists at the SDSC. Mission Director Mr P K Unni krishnan, addressing a news conference later with the ISRO chief and other top scientists, said the PSLV-C21 had “precisely injected’’ the two satellites. The orbit “was very precise and very consistent” and all stages performed exceedingly well. The health of the two satellites “is normal.’’ there was a two-minute delay in the PSLV-C21 lift-off morning, Dr Radhakrishnan said it was done after extensive consultations over the “impact of possible debris in space that could come in the way’’ when the satellites were launched from Sriharikota. While Radhakrishnan declined to discuss how much ISRO would be paid for the launch of these two foreign satellites due to the clause in the commercial agreement, he assured the media that cost of the mission had been recovered by this successful flight. “We don’t talk of net profit or loss’’, he added.
Source: Deccan herald
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