The national space agency ISRO is all set to launch the "Cartosat-2 Series" satellite using the PSLV rocket into space tomorrow morning. It will lift off at 9.29 hours Friday from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikotta in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 kilometers off Chennai.<br/><br/>The "Cartosat-2 Series" and 29 others will be inserted into a 505 kilometer sun-synchronous orbit after about seventeen and a half minutes since its lift off. Later, the payload Microsat developed by the ISRO will be taken down to a lower orbit at 359 kilometer height and launched using the 'multiple engine switch-on' method.<br/><br/>This will be the fourth time the novel method would be used by the ISRO for placing satellites in multiple orbits in a single flight. It will also be one of the longest duration flights that will last for over two hours twenty two minutes into space.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that the PSLV C40 mission would be the 42nd flight for the rocket and the first one for the space agency ISRO this year. It will also cap the tenure of Dr AS Kiran Kumar as the ISRO chairman, who has led the agency to achieve many key milestones.<br/><br/>The satellite "Cartosat-2 Series" is the seventh remote sensing satellite in its series and has the mission life of five years. Its uses include monitoring urban and rural applications, coastal land use regulation, managing services like road networks and water distribution, detecting changes in geographical features and creation of land use maps.<br/><br/>The flight is the first since the setback suffered by the PSLV in August last and is set to demonstrate that the workhorse rocket is back in the game for reliable satellite launches in low earth and polar orbits.

The national space agency ISRO is all set to launch the "Cartosat-2 Series" satellite using the PSLV rocket into space tomorrow morning. It will lift off at 9.29 hours Friday from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikotta in Andhra Pradesh, about 90 kilometers off Chennai.<br/><br/>The "Cartosat-2 Series" and 29 others will be inserted into a 505 kilometer sun-synchronous orbit after about seventeen and a half minutes since its lift off. Later, the payload Microsat developed by the ISRO will be taken down to a lower orbit at 359 kilometer height and launched using the 'multiple engine switch-on' method.<br/><br/>This will be the fourth time the novel method would be used by the ISRO for placing satellites in multiple orbits in a single flight. It will also be one of the longest duration flights that will last for over two hours twenty two minutes into space.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports that the PSLV C40 mission would be the 42nd flight for the rocket and the first one for the space agency ISRO this year. It will also cap the tenure of Dr AS Kiran Kumar as the ISRO chairman, who has led the agency to achieve many key milestones.<br/><br/>The satellite "Cartosat-2 Series" is the seventh remote sensing satellite in its series and has the mission life of five years. Its uses include monitoring urban and rural applications, coastal land use regulation, managing services like road networks and water distribution, detecting changes in geographical features and creation of land use maps.<br/><br/>The flight is the first since the setback suffered by the PSLV in August last and is set to demonstrate that the workhorse rocket is back in the game for reliable satellite launches in low earth and polar orbits.