India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-XL on flight PSLV-C52 injected Earth Observation Satellite EOS-04 (aka RISAT 1A) into its intended sun synchronous polar orbit of 529 km altitude some 18 minutes after its launch at 0029 GMT from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on 14 February 2022.
India’s PSLV-XL rocket on flight C52 ignites. Courtesy: ISRO
The PSLV was in its XL configuration using six strap-on motors. The satellite EOS-04 was built by the U R Rao Satellite Centre, Bengaluru. The 1710 kg EOS-04 is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imaging satellite designed to provide high quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as Agriculture, Forestry & Plantations, Soil Moisture & Hydrology and Flood mapping. The satellite is designed to have a minimum mission life of 10 years.
The launch also placed two small satellites a student satellite (INSPIREsat-1) from Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology (IIST) in association with Laboratory of Atmospheric & Space Physics at University of Colorado, Boulder and a technology demonstrator satellite (INS-2TD) from ISRO, which is a precursor to India-Bhutan Joint Satellite (INS-2B).
