Date: January 15th 2007

Sriharikota: India’s space program took a giant leap forward on Wednesday with the successful launch of the 44.4 metre tall four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying four satellites for the first time.

The four satellites are indigenous 680-kg Cartosat-2 550 kg space capsule recovery experiment (SRE), 56-kg LapanTubsat, a joint venture between Technical University of Berlin and Indonesian Space Agency and six-kg Peheunsat-1 of Argentina.

The mission had attracted considerable interest and attention because for the first time India was evaluating technologies relating to the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) through SRE. At the end of the rocket’s 19-minutes flight when the four satellites were successfully placed in orbit, ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair declared in the mission control room, “It is a great day for the country. It was a textbook mission. The entire team has captured the confidence of the country on space launches.”

With the failure of Geo Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle on July 10, 2006, the success of PSLV flight came as a huge relief to the Indian space community and boosted their morale.

At 9:23 am as the mighty rocket thundered off the launch pad, scientists and engineers in the control room, and a large number of spectators who had assembled in balconies and terraces of buildings of the space center broke into an applause.

Prior to the much awaited lift off, the mood among space officials was one of suspense and nervous anticipation. In the control room, rocket and satellite teams wearing white coats sat glued to their work stations, continuously checking the flow of data from the computers connected to the rocket.
The silence was punctured with an official announcing the countdown- ‘All stations stand by for the time mark. Mark-19 minutes and counting Mark-15 minutes and counting.” At 9.9 am there was an announcement saying, “Vehicle director to mission director PSLV is ready for launch. All communications are ready.”

A minute later the mission director declared, “This is the mission director, PSLV, Cartosat-2 and SRE launch is authorized. The automatic launch sequence is also authorized.” Four minutes prior to the take-off the on-board computers were activated. At one point the pace of the countdown picked up, and as it was nearing the zero mark, some of the scientists in the control room clasped their hands in a silent prayer. And then – 10 seconds 9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-0 and the rocket’s strap –on engines roared into life and the vehicle blasted off.

As the rocket left the launch pad, there was no sign of it for the first few seconds. Then suddenly it emerged out of the trees riding on yellowish pillar of flames, gathering velocity every second, piercing the clear blue sky over the space complex. To begin with, the take off seemed soundless.

Then came a few staccato bursts, turning into an awesome roar; which reverberated across the vast spaceport. It was a sight that instantly triggered excited shouts and applause. The tension of the countdown had been broken, and everybody felt a momentary sense of relief; after all the satellites had yet to be placed in orbit and this important event was still a few minutes away.

Travelling at a hypersonic speed of 25,000 kmph, 981.3 seconds after the blast off, Cartosat- 2 went into orbit. Then the naon satellite, Pehuensat-1 went into orbit 1,037.5 seconds after the lift off. This was followed by the space capsule recovery experiment and finally the Lapan-Tubsat satellite was placed into orbit 1,1175 seconds after the lift-off. The mission was a success.



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