The HysIS, which is a hyperspectral imaging satellite, will help environmental, agricultural, geological and coastal studies in India.
New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s PSLVC43 mission has successfully performed its primary mission of launching the HysIS satellite into Earth’s orbit. The satellite will be a boon to environmental, agricultural, geological and coastal studies in the country.
HysIS — hyperspectral imaging satellite — is the first of its kind in India and will study the Earth’s surface under the visible, near-infrared, and shortwave infrared bands of the electromagnetic spectrum.
The satellite weighs 380kg and is 2.2m x 1.4m x 1.1m in dimensions. It is expected to function for at least five years.
The 30 other housed foreign satellites were also launched as the mission was successfully completed.
Also read: ISRO set to launch imaging satellite that will help India’s agriculture & defence sectors
Launch
The launch, initially scheduled for 9.30am, was pushed to 9.58am from the first launch pad at Sriharikota. It followed the standard PSLV launch procedure.
In the first stage, a 20m tall structure with solid propellant, ignited, launching the rocket and separated at 109 seconds. In the second stage, a 12.8m tall stage with liquid propellant, then ignited.
Payload fairing, or the nose cone which shields the satellites inside, separated at 180 seconds as the rocket cruised outside of Earth’s atmospheric layers. The second stage burned out and separated, and the third stage ignited at the 263-second mark. This stage again alternates with a solid propellant and is 3.6m tall. The fourth stage ignited at the 499-second mark. This was the first of three ignitions for the 3-metre long fourth stage, which cut off at 994 seconds after a long burn.
HysIS was placed into a polar sun synchronous orbit of 636 km and inclination of 97.957 degrees. This kind of orbit ensures that the satellite will pass over the same location every day at the same time.
The fourth stage ignited twice more this morning: At the 3579-second mark for four seconds and the 6463-second mark for another four seconds to reorient itself.
It started releasing the 30 housed foreign satellites at the 6541-second mark and completed all satellite injections by the 6767-second mark.
The entire mission was 1 hour, 52 minutes and 47 seconds long.