ISRO Successfully Launches Cartosat-3 Satellite Alongside 13 Commercial Nanosatellites

ISRO Cartosat-3 Launch

ISRO live-streamed the entire launch event on various social media platforms. The Cartosat-3 is the ninth in the series of launches, which took off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. As scheduled, the spacecraft took off at 9.28 AM. It marked the 74th successful launch vehicle mission from the space center at Sriharikota.

The Cartosat-3 was loaded on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C47. The same vehicle also carried along the commercial nano-satellites for the US. And according to the latest Twitter update, ISRO says these 13 commercial satellites were "successfully placed in their designated orbits."

ISRO Cartosat-3: Specifications

As mentioned previously, the Cartosat-3 is the third-generation agile satellite. It comes with high-resolution imaging capabilities with a panchromatic resolution of 0.25 meters. ISRO notes that the satellite will replace the IRS series, a huge leap from the previous payloads in the Cartosat series.

ISRO also reported that the Cartosat-3 satellite will be part of the military surveillance in the border regions, especially in the Indo-Pak regions to trace terror groups and their hideouts. In addition to being the ‘eyes in the sky', the satellite will also address the demand for large-scale urban planning, infrastructure development, coastal land user, rural resource, and more.

The space agency notes that the mission life of the successfully launched satellite will be for five years. With the triumphant launch, ISRO is now gearing up for the next ambitious mission: Chandrayaan-3, which is scheduled to take off in November 2020. ISRO is studying errors of the Chandrayaan 2's Vikram lander so that the same errors will not repeat with the next Moon mission.