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ISRO successfully launched India’s 16th remote-sensing satellite, Oceansat-2 along with 6 European nano satellites from Sriharikotta at 11.51 am on Wednesday.
Seven satellites were launched in a span of 1200 seconds, which reminds us of the launch of 10 satellites by ISRO during April 2008.
Out of the six nano satellites, four are German, one is a Swiss and the final one is a Turkish. Oceansat-2, the largest of all the ones launched today, weighs 960 kg.
"The rocket re-orients itself everytime a satellite is to be placed in orbit. The re-orientation ensures one satellite doesn't collide with another. The rocket effectively re-orients itself four to five times in the space of one flight," a scientist explained.
"There is no room for error. The rocket has to be in flight till the last minute which means all systems on board have to function to perfection. Once the first and second stages separate, and the fourth stage (the engines) stop, the ejection process begins until every satellite circulates in orbit," an official said.
This is the 16th mission for PSLV which started functioning from Sep 1993. Till April 2009, it has been used 15 times, with just one failure to its account.
ISRO spokesperson S Satish told: "It is known that PSLV has been a very successful launch vehicle. Countries realise it is a vehicle or rocket very well suited for launch of nano satellites. We were on to our 16th mission with PSLV and Germany and Swtizerland were looking for a mission. Our needs coincided and that's how we have the six nano satellites."
