Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday congratulated India Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for the successful launch of PSLV’s longest flight SCATSAT-1 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. PM Modi described the launch as a “moment of immense joy and pride”.
“Moment of immense joy and pride for India. Congratulations to @isro on successful launch of PSLV-C35/SCATSAT-1 and 7 co-passenger satellites,” Narendra Modi said in a tweet.
The Prime Minister also said that ISRO has made 125 crore Indians proud worldwide.
WATCH VIDEO: 5 Things To Know About ISRO PSLV SCATSAT-1 Launch
“Our space scientists keep scripting history. Their innovative zeal has touched the lives of 125 crore Indians and made India proud worldwide,” his tweet said.
ISRO on Monday launched PSLV’s longest flight SCATSAT-1 at 9:12 am for ocean and weather studies. The 320-tonne rocket, carrying eight satellites, blasted off from the launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. This launch is said to be ISRO’s longest mission spread over two hours and fifteen minutes.
The SCATSAT-1 is a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 scatterometer to provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users, ISRO said in a statement. The satellite carries Ku-band scatterometer which is similar to the one put onboard the Oceansat-2. The mission life of the satellite is five years, said ISRO.
The rocket is carrying five foreign and three Indian satellites. Among the five foreign satellites, three are from Algeria namely Alsat-1B 103kg, Alsat-2B 117kg, Alsat-1N 7kg, and one each from Canada (NLS-19, 8kg) and the US (Pathfinder-44kg). The two other Indian satellites are: Pratham (10kg) built by Indian Institute of Technology – Bombay (IIT-Bombay) and Pisat (5.25 kg) from PES University, Bengaluru and its consortium.