ISRO today announced that it would launch 31 satellites, including India's Cartosat-2 series earth observation space craft, in a single mission onboard its Polar rocket on January 10.
The mission will be the first Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) mission after the unsuccessful launch of navigation satellite IRNSS-1H in August.
"The launch is tentatively scheduled for January 10," a senior Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official told PTI.
The mission's main payload would be India's Cartosat-2 series earth observation satellite. The Mission Readiness Review committee and Launch Authorisation Board is scheduled to meet in the coming days would take the final call, he said.
PSLV-C40 will be used for the launch from the spaceport in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota, about 100 kms from Chennai.
The mission would be a combination of 28 nano satellites from foreign countries, including Finland and the US, one micro and nano satellite from India along with one Cartosat satellite, the official said.
justify;">On August 31, India's mission to launch its backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 ended in a failure after a technical fault on the final leg following a perfect launch.
ISRO then said the heat shield did not separate on the final leg of the launch sequence and, as a result, IRNSS-1H got stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket.
According to ISRO, Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of providing high resolution scene specific spot imageries.
It carries Panchromatic and Multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high resolution data.
This would be the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series.
In February this year, PSLV-C37 launched the first Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites in a single flight.
In June, India's workhorse launch vehicle launched the second one along with 30 co-passenger satellites — the 39th consecutively successful mission of PSLV.
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