10.40 a.m
The PM Narendra Modi has congratulated ISRO in a series of tweets : " My heartiest congratulations to ISRO and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc. The launch of the 100th satellite by ISRO signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme. Benefits of India's success are available to our partners! Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch."
President Ram Nath Kovind also tweeted: "Launch of India's 100th satellite Cartosat-2, along with two co-passenger satellites as well as 28 satellites of six friendly countries, is a moment of pride for every Indian. Congratulations to @isro team of exceptional scientists. A milestone for our country."
10.20 a.m
Twenty-nine other smaller satellites have been injected into orbit by PSLV-C40, says ISRO chief AS Kiran Kumar
9.47 a.m
Scientists at the Mission Control at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre applaud after the Cartosat-2 is announced to have separated. The separation of other satellites begin.
9.42 a.m
The fourth stage performance is normal.
9.37 a.m
The third stage has successfully seperated. The fourth stage engine has been ignited.
9.29 a.m
Cartosat-2 satellite launched
Cartosat-2 Series satellite launches from Sathish Dhawan Space centre at Sriharikota on Friday.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to launch its 100th satellite, the Cartosat-2 Series satellite, on Friday morning from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
The Cartosat-2 Series Satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C40 (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle). The ISRO in its website says the imagery sent by the remote-sensing satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land-use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) as well as Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.
The latest launch comes nearly five months after the launch of ISRO’s IRNSS-1H satellite, its eighth regional navigation satellite, was unsuccessful. The satellite didn’t come out of the heat shield as it should have, though the PSLV rocket’s lift off was as planned.
