The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C52 will also carry two small co-passenger satellites. The launch is scheduled at 05:59 hours on Monday from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
The PSLV C5-2/EOS-04 Mission is the 54th flight of PSLV and the 23rd mission using PSLV-XL configuration with six solid propellant strap-on motors (PSOM-XL).
What is the mission?
PSLV-C52, designed to orbit an earth observation satellite EOS-04, weighing 1710 kg into a sun-synchronous polar orbit of 529 kilometres. The two satellites to be carried as co-passengers include one student satellite, called INSPIREsat-1 from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in association with the Laboratory of Atmospheric and Space Physics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and a technology demonstrator satellite (INS-2TD) from the Indian space agency. INS-2TD is a precursor to India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B).
EOS-04, a radar imaging satellite designed to provide high-quality images under all weather conditions, will be used for applications such as agriculture, soil moisture and hydrology, forestry & plantations and flood mapping.
The INS-2TD, a technology demonstrator satellite from ISRO, has a thermal imaging camera as its payload, helps in the assessment of land surface temperature, water surface temperature of wetlands and lakes, delineation of vegetation, including crops and forests, and thermal inertia, during the day as well as night.
How Long?
The mission of INS-2TD will last six months, while that of INSPIREsat-1 will last a year.
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