The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday commenced the countdown for the launch of a rocket that is set to place an earth observation satellite along with 13 others into to the blue planet’s orbit.
The 22.5-hour countdown which began at 12.48 pm and will lead to the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C62 rocket launch, will mark the national space agency’s first launch of this year.
Key details about PSLV-C62:
- The launch of the PSLV-C62, with its lift-off mass being nearly 260 tonnes is now scheduled at 10.18 am on January 12, pushed a minute back from the earlier time of 10.17 am, news agency PTI reported quoting ISRO officials.
- The total of 14 co-passenger satellites including the earth observation satellite belong to domestic and overseas customers.
- The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission would initially deploy the observation satellite built by Thailand and the United Kingdom. This will be followed by 13 other co-passenger satellites into the sun-synchronous orbit around 17 minutes after the lift-off.
- The mission is undertaken by NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO.
PSLV and ISRO
The PSLV rocket has completed a total of 63 flights so far with some of its remarkable ones being the ambitious Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 mission.
The last PSLV launch was the C61 earth observation satellite 09 mission launched on May 18, 2025. The launch could not be accomplished due to an “observation” in the third stage of the rocket.