The Indian Space Agency successfully deployed its 100th Satellite today
Today was a proud day for my friends and contacts in India’s Space Agency, the Indian Space and Research Organisation, ISRO, as the country successfully deployed their 100th national satellite. It has been roughly four decades since India launched their first satellite Aryabhat, so taking their tally to 100 already is a very impressive milestone to be reached.
India's PSLV satellite launching with the country's 100th satellite January 12.
Image credit: ISRO, image source
The launch took place this morning, using India’s own Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C37. The mission deployed 31 satellites, out of which 3 were Indian and 28 belong to international customers from six countries including Canada, Finland, France, Korea, the UK and the US. Deploying numerous earth imaging satellites at the same time in the preferred polar orbit for imaging satellites has become a speciality for ISRO, as demonstrated by their record-setting launch of 104 satellites with one launch last year (also mentioned in my Space highlights of 2017 post this week).
India's Cartosat-2 satellite being prepared for launch
Image credit: ISRO, image source
The main payload for this launch, however, was the Indian Cartosat-2, making up 714kg of the payload’s total weight of 1323kg. The satellite (pictured above) will add to the constellation of earth observation surveillance satellites operated by ISRO. On top of providing the military with intelligence, in particular from the Indian border, the satellite series will also provide useful data to benefit industry public bodies in the country. A statement from ISRO on the relevant applications for the data can be read below:
The images from Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.
Statement on ISRO's official website. Source
I find great pleasure in reading stories like these myself and spending some time researching both the history and current capabilities of space agencies and industry in countries like India (as well as Brazil and China). When someone talks about space, it is easy to instantly think about NASA, thus forgetting that space is a frontier for humanity at large and one that most great economies are actively engaging in whether it be through their national space agencies or local industries.
So today I just want to give a toast to all my friends in India who I know either from the space sector or now also on steemit. I am convinced that your country will only become more relevant on the global space scene as time goes by!
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I am wondering which fraction of the Indian satellites are still in service after 40 years and if you have by any chance a cartography of their purpose. And the second question would be how this compares with a country like the US, or with Europe. I know I could google the answer myself, but I am lost in the middle of nowhere an d the connection is bad :p
No idea, the space graveyard of dead satellites is growing larger and larger. I guess I could also try to look it up, or knock on the door of one of my corridor neighbours who works with ESAs "Clean Space" initiative which maps space junk, among other things :P
That's a great idea for a post by the way. Thanks! :)
You are welcome. You owe me a beer :D
How I love the wide angle first shot of this article. Realy shows of the amount of power required to launch such a beast!
Congratulations on that 100th launch India! That's realy significant =o
t.
Again, I be fascinated by the information you share with us here in our Steemit community. The technological - spatial development is on the rise!
OMG! This is SUCH an AMAZING post! Thank you for sharing! I give you a vote !!
Posts like these are so much needed! Science is being developed in many places, and some great news about this are lost in the noise.
All the best for projects like this!
I appreciate that you are covering ISRO in your posts. Its easy to neglect other space agencies who are doing significant contribution in space research.
Followed you.
Yup, there is soooo much more going on in the space scene than just NASA and SpaceX (which are the 2 brands most people will see in the newspapers currently). Need to do some justice to the other actors as well!
Thanks for the follow.
Here is a video of this mission from on-board camera showing how multiple satellites are being deployed in space. You might like to add it in the blog. Its fun to watch this video.
https://www.isro.gov.in/pslv-c40-cartosat-2-series-satellite-mission/pslv-c40-cartosat-2-series-mission-liftoff-and-onboard
That is really cool indeed. Thanks for the contribution!
That music though ^^
Your welcome :)
Thank you for sharing this! It is indeed so that we hear a lot about what Nasa is doing and rarely stories about different agencies make it to the front page. Maybe it is so because media loves covering stories they know will be popular with masses, but that does not show the full picture of what is happening in Space sector unfortunately.
but that is changing with more platform coming that tells the world about what is happening, traditional media is been out gunned by new media
That's awesome! It's great to see science and space exploration used to better living conditions. Improving water distribution and roads will help many.
That's absolutely right! Working with these types of downstream applications myself I see how it helps make maintenance a lot more efficient when implemented properly.
Awesome news for India as a whole, not just for the space sector!
Congrats to India!! As you said it's really nice to see other agencies have achievements like that and spread a message to the world that '' every country can do it''. Also it can be seen as Healthy competition too, ''who's gonna make the better satellite, cost friendly and discover new things about our universe''
its an awesome pride moment for being an INDIAN.