This mission was special for another reason as well, since it marked another major milestone which was "the 75th launch from spaceport of India", the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, Sivan noted. Live imagery beamed back to Earth from the rocket showed India’s RISAT 2BR1 radar observation satellite separating from the PSLV’s fourth stage around 16-and-a-half minutes into the mission. The enhanced observing capability of radar satellites makes them useful for military and intelligence agencies. “Along with the 50th historic mission for PSLV, this mission marks another major milestone,” said K. Sivan, ISRO’s chairman. Dubbing the PSLV a "wonderful vehicle", Sivan said Dr Srinivasan conceptualised and configured it, while G Madhavan Nair made it operational.

Flying in a configuration with four strap-on solid rocket boosters, the PSLV flew southeast from Sriharikota and jettisoned its solid-fueled boosters and core stage motor in the first two minutes of the flight. According to an information kit released by ISRO, RISAT 2BR1 will provide imagery to support applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1. "I am extremely happy to declare the 50th PSLV vehicle, C48 successfully injected RISAT-2BR1 and nine customer satellites precisely into the 576 km orbit," Sivan said. “This spacecraft is an excellent space asset, which will contribute for national security, agriculture, forestry, agriculture, disaster management, and a host of applications,” said R.V. At the same time, we have a large number of missions to do. Between 1994 and 2019, PSLV launched 50 Indian satellites and 222 foreign satellites for over 70 international customers from 20 countries. "Definitely, we have had many successes. The 144-foot-tall (44.4-meter) launcher lifted off with some 1.7 million pounds of thrust at 4:55 a.m. EST (0955 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, a spaceport located on Sriharikota Island on India’s southeastern coast with the Bay of Bengal. “This is the 75th launch from the spaceport of India (at Sriharikota).”. In the next few minutes, the PSLV jettisoned a dual-payload adapter structure and ejected nine other small satellites into space. RISAT 2BR1 follows the launch of a similar radar imaging satellite launched by India in May. Nadagouda, the RISAT 2BR1 spacecraft director. For reprint rights: Syndications Today, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, S Somanath hailed 50th mission saying, "PSLV has hit gold today" | Photo from Isro/Twitter, PSLV strikes gold, touches 50th mission milestone: Isro, Isro launches spy satellite RISAT-2BR1 on PSLV's historic 50th mission, Isro applauded across the globe for its Moon mission: Nirmala Sitharaman, The moment Isro's PSLV rocket launched RISAT-2BR1 satellite, Kevin Hart and wife Eniko welcome baby girl, their second child together, Some more feed readers removed from iOS app store in China, Varmaa: Bala's film with Dhruv Vikram to have its premiere on October 6, Donald Trump condemns all white supremacists including Proud Boys, After 61 years, India records 2 consecutive years of ‘above normal’ rainfall.

The 50th flight of an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle delivered 10 spacecraft from five nations into orbit Wednesday, including a new Indian radar surveillance platform and a batch of small commercial Earth observation satellites. The tech demo satellite launched Wednesday hosts an optical imager with a resolution of approximately 3.3 feet, or 1 meter, according to Hera Systems.

Two CubeSats manufactured by the U.S.-based CubeSat-builder Tyvak were also on the PSLV launch Wednesday. Engineers have also introduced a new capability to reignite the PSLV’s fourth stage and outfit it with solar panels for extended missions. Also, there were a whole lot of others, including RV Perumal, Ramakrishnan and George Koshy, whose rich contributions propelled the PSLV to great heights, Sivan said. A 41-pound (19-kilogram) microsatellite developed by Hera Systems, a California-based company, also rocketed into orbit Wednesday atop India’s PSLV. The PSLV’s first mission lifted off from Sriharikota on Sept. 20, 1993, but failed to reach orbit after encountering a problem during separation of the rocket’s second and third stages.

The 37-degree inclination orbit selected for the RISAT 2BR1 satellite does not provide global radar observation coverage, but it offers regular passes over Indian territory and neighboring Pakistan, a longtime strategic rival to India in the region. Telemetry data and live video downlinked from the rocket showed the PSLV flying on course, and officials from the Indian Space Research Organization — India’s space agency — said the launcher delivered its payloads into an on-target orbit. The PSLV has failed only twice in its history — the maiden flight of the PSLV … QPS-SAR 1’s deployable synthetic aperture radar is the same 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) size of the instrument on India’s RISAT 2BR1 satellite, but the radar fits on a much smaller spacecraft. Four more Lemur-2 CubeSats for San Francisco-based Spire Global also launched Wednesday. About 17 percent of the mass launched by the PSLV … "Now we are going to send a satellite to the sun's orbit", Sivan said, adding that Isro was looking at more launches next year with PSLV. The PSLV’s guidance system aimed to inject the satellites into a 357-mile-high (576-kilometer) orbit inclined 37 degrees to the equator. Israeli high school students at the Herzliya Science Center built the Duchifat 3 CubeSat launched on Wednesday’s PSLV flight.

Like that many missions lined up for next year," Isro chief K Sivan said.

Earth-looking optical telescopes are inhibited by cloudy weather, and only produce usable imagery during daytime. India’s first orbiters to reach the moon and Mars also launched on PSLV flights. ISRO originally developed the PSLV to carry Indian Earth observation satellites into low Earth orbit and end Indian reliance on foreign launchers for many missions. Sivan said the 50 PSLV missions to date have launched more than 116,000 pounds (52.7 metric tons) of payloads into space. Sivan said the 50 PSLV missions to date have launched more than 116,000 pounds (52.7 metric tons) of payloads into space. But Indian engineers have nearly doubled the PSLV’s original launch mass capacity since 1993, and the PSLV has flown in five different configurations with zero, two, four, or six strap-on boosters. Copyright © 2020 Living Media India Limited. Isro head Sivan, hailing the versatility and unbeatable performance of the PSLV for over the past two decades, lauded its 50th mission as "historical".