Isro launches its latest earth monitoring satellite

Sriharikota: India on Thursday successfully launched its latest earth observation satellite HysIS, the data from which can be used in wide-ranging areas including agriculture, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here onboard Isro’s trusted workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The rocket, PSLV-C43, successfully injected state of the art HysIS and 30 other co-passenger satellites from eight countries into their designated orbits.

The rocket lifted off majestically into cloudy skies in a burst of orange flames at 9.57 am from the first launch pad at this spaceport at the end of the 28-hour countdown.

The Hyper Spectral Imaging Satellite (HysIS) was placed in its orbit 17 minutes and 27 seconds after lift-off while the 30 co-passenger satellites were dropped into the designated orbit one by one after an hour.

HysIS, the latest earth observation satellite developed by Isro, has several uses. The satellite’s data will be useful in many fields including agriculture, forestry, soil survey, geology, coastal zone studies, inland water studies, environmental monitoring and pollution detection from industries. ISRO chief K. Sivan and the space agency’s scientists broke into cheers as the earth observation satellite was injected into sun-synchronous polar orbit.