Indian Space Research Organisation PSLV Successfully Launches Israeli Satellite (Forwarded)
- From: Andrew Yee <ayee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2008 10:50:21 -0500
Indian Space Research Organisation
Bangalore, India
January 21, 2008
PSLV Successfully Launches Israeli Satellite
Antrix Corporation is happy to announce that its second full-fledged
commercial launch has been successfully completed today. After the final
count down, PSLV-C10 lifted off from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at SDSC SHAR
at 09:15 Hrs [0345 UTC] with the ignition of the first stage. Incidentally
this is the 25th Satellite Launch Mission from SDSC, SHAR. The launch of
TECSAR was executed under a commercial contract between Israel Aerospace
Industries (IAI) and ANTRIX Corporation.
It may be recalled that the first major commercial launch of PSLV (PSLV-C8)
took place on April 23, 2007, when it successfully launched an Italian
astronomical satellite, AGILE.
The 300 kg TECSAR satellite was placed into its intended orbit with a
perigee (nearest point to earth) of 450 km and apogee (farthest point to
earth) of 580 km with an orbital inclination of 41 deg with respect to the
equator. TECSAR was placed in orbit 1185 sec after lift off.
PSLV has emerged as the workhorse launch vehicle of ISRO with eleven
consecutively successful flights so far. Since its first successful launch
in 1994, PSLV has launched eight Indian remote sensing satellites, an
amateur radio satellite, HAMSAT, a recoverable space capsule, SRE-1, and two
primary satellites and six small satellites for foreign customers. Besides,
it has launched India's exclusive meteorological satellite, Kalpana-1, into
Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). PSLV is also slated to launch India's
first spacecraft to moon, Chandrayaan-1, in 2008.
TECSAR is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Technology satellite. The design,
development and fabrication activities of the satellite were led by MBT
Space, a division of the Israeli Aerospace industries with the participation
of other high tech industries such as ELTA, Tadiran Spectralink, Rafael. The
satellite is equipped with a SAR payload with the capability to see through
the clouds and carry out day and night all weather imaging.
Photo gallery: http://www.isro.org/pslv-c10/photos/index.htm
.
- Prev by Date: Gliese 581: one planet might indeed be habitable (Forwarded)
- Next by Date: Near-Earth Asteroid 2007 TU24 to Pass Close To Past Earth on Jan. 29 - Should be Observable with Modest Sized Telescopes
- Previous by thread: Gliese 581: one planet might indeed be habitable (Forwarded)
- Next by thread: Near-Earth Asteroid 2007 TU24 to Pass Close To Past Earth on Jan. 29 - Should be Observable with Modest Sized Telescopes
- Index(es):
Relevant Pages
|
