The launch campaign is progressing smoothly for a multiple-satellite mission from Sriharikota on June 30. A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C23) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will liftoff from the spaceport on the island in Andhra Pradesh at 9.49 a.m. on that day and put into orbit five foreign satellites.
M.C. Dathan, Director, Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), ISRO, said the launch campaign was progressing well and all the tests done on the vehicle had given satisfactory results. The five satellites were in good health and they had been mated with the launch vehicle. It is a core-alone PSLV version, without the strap-on booster motors around the first stage, which would put the satellites into orbit, added Mr. Dathan.
The heaviest of the five satellites is the 714-kg earth observation satellite called SPOT-7 from France.
The other satellites are: a 14-kg AISAT from Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada, each weighing 15 kg and seven kg, and the 7-kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.
These satellites are for remote-sensing or testing their various instruments, an ISRO official said.
