India set to launch PSLV C23 on Monday, 30th June 2014: 9.52 am
India is all set to launch its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, C-23 from the Sriharikota spaceport on Monday, 30th June 2014.
Country's third commercial launch, PSLV-C23 would carry five foreign satellites to orbit. PSLV-C23 would carry SIPCOT-7, a French satellite, as the main payload. It will also launch satellites of Germany, Canada and Singapore.
The French Earth observation satellite, the 714-kg SPOT-7, will be the main passenger on the PSLV’s 27th flight and will be put into space at about 650 km from ground, along with four small co-riders.
They are Germany agency DLR’s 14-kg nanosat AISAT to monitor sea traffic; Canada’s NLS 7.1 and NLS 7.2, each weighing 15 kg; and NTU Singapore’s 7-kg small satellite VELOX-1.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan has informed that this was the PSLV’s third dedicated commercial launch since it started taking up non-Indian spacecraft for a fee way back in May 1999.
Over the next two years, the ISRO has scheduled three more such ‘dedicated’ commercial PSLV flights.
A fully commercial launch means there is no Indian spacecraft on the launcher and customers pay for the launch of their respective satellites on the PSLV.
In the past, PSLV-C21 carried SPOT-6, which is the present SPOT-7’s complementary satellite, and PROTERES into space in September 2012; PSLV-C10 lifted Israel’s TECSAR in January 2008, and PSLV-C8 launched Italy’s AGILE in April 2007.
The PSLV, which can lift a total satellite weight of around 1.6 tonnes to a height of around 650 km, is firmly placed on the multi-billion-dollar global market of satellite launchers and has been commanding a good price that has risen from the promotional rates in its early years.