NEW DELHI, Dec 17: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday successfully placed into orbit its communication satellite CMS-01.
The ISRO later announced that “the PSLV-C50 rocket has successfully placed communication satellite CMS-01 into orbit. The satellite is functioning very well and will be placed in a specified slot in another 4 days. Teams worked very well and safely under the COVID-19 pandemic situation for the success of the mission.
The communication satellite is envisaged for providing services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum covering India, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands. It is the 42nd communication satellite of the space agency.
PSLV-C50 is the 22nd flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (equipped with six strap-on motors), and it was the 77th launch vehicle mission from Sriharikota, about 120 km from Chennai.
It follows the successful launch of PSLV-C49 (EOS-01) earth observation satellite and nine customer spacecraft on November 7 which was ISRO’s first mission of the year amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to ISRO, the satellite has a life span of seven years.
(Manas Dasgupta)