Mumbai: It promises to be a historical Indian space mission for three reasons on September 26. It will be the first time that a satellite, Pratham, designed and developed by the students of IIT-Bombay will be launched. Second, only 18 days after successfully launching a weather satellite, Insat-3DR, another one, ScatSat-1, will be placed in orbit for the first time.
Third, in its 23-year-old history, it will be the first time that the highly proven four-stage PSLV will be launching satellites into two different orbits. For Monday's flight the launcher will be the advanced version of the PSLV called the PSLV-XL.
ScatSat-1 with a five-year mission span will be used for ocean and weather-related studies. The lift off is at 9.12am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Apart from Pratham, the other co-passenger satellites are from the US, Canada, Algeria and one of a Bengaluru-based institution. The satellite is called Pisat.
According to Isro, while the main satellite, ScatSat-1, will be placed into a 720-km polar sun synchronous orbit, the remaining ones will go into a 670-km polar sun synchronous orbit. For this complex manoeuvre, Isro had earlier carried out a test of successfully shutting down and restarting the fourth stage engine of the PSLV.
Third, in its 23-year-old history, it will be the first time that the highly proven four-stage PSLV will be launching satellites into two different orbits. For Monday's flight the launcher will be the advanced version of the PSLV called the PSLV-XL.
ScatSat-1 with a five-year mission span will be used for ocean and weather-related studies. The lift off is at 9.12am from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. Apart from Pratham, the other co-passenger satellites are from the US, Canada, Algeria and one of a Bengaluru-based institution. The satellite is called Pisat.
According to Isro, while the main satellite, ScatSat-1, will be placed into a 720-km polar sun synchronous orbit, the remaining ones will go into a 670-km polar sun synchronous orbit. For this complex manoeuvre, Isro had earlier carried out a test of successfully shutting down and restarting the fourth stage engine of the PSLV.