ISRO's PSLV rocket to launch India's HysIS, 30 other satellites from 8 countries shortly

HysIS, an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO, is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission.

Image Courtesy: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organization's rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is all set to launch the Indian satellite HysIS along with 30 other satellites from eight countries from its Sriharikota spaceport on Thursday morning. 

The rocket is scheduled to be launched 9:58 am. 

“The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its 45th flight PSLV-C43, will launch HysIS and 30 co-passenger satellites from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR Sriharikota on 29th November 2018,” said the Indian space agency.

Update #2#ISROMissions#PSLVC43
The countdown for the launch of #PSLVC43 carrying Indian satellite #HysIS and 30 satellites from 8 countries began today at 05:58 (IST) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The launch is scheduled at 09:58 (IST) tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/E0xPn95llc — ISRO (@isro) November 28, 2018

HysIS is an earth observation satellite developed by ISRO, with a mission life five years. It is the primary satellite of the PSLV-C43 mission and will be placed in 636 km polar sun-synchronous orbit with an inclination of 97.957 deg. The mass of the spacecraft is about 380 kg. 

The entire mission will be completed in just 112 minutes after the rocket`s lift-off. The rocket`s fourth stage will be switched off in just over 16 minutes after the lift-off. After over 17 minutes into the flight, the PSLV will place the HysIS satellite in its orbit. After that, the rocket will be brought to a lower altitude of 503 km from 642 km. 

“The primary goal of HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum,” said ISRO. 

Among other 30 satellites, there's one Micro and 29 Nano satellites from eight different nations. While 23 satellites are from the US, the rest are from Australia, Canada, Columbia, Finland, Malaysia, the Netherlands and Spain. 

“All these satellites will be placed in a 504 km orbit by PSLV-C43. These satellites have been commercially contracted for launch through Antrix Corporation Limited, the commercial arm of ISRO,” said the space agency. 

After HysIS is placed in its orbit, the rocket`s fourth stage will be restarted at 59.65 minutes after the lift-off. Later, the engine will be switched off and on twice before the final passenger is put into orbit about 112.79 minutes after the rocket`s lift-off. 

At the time of filing this copy on Thursday morning, the launch countdown of the PSLV-C43 with 31 satellites onboard is progressing smoothly, said the space agency. The countdown began at 5.58 am on Wednesday. 

In January this year, ISRO had earlier carried out a satellite mission for over two hours.

With agency inputs