Another feat for ISRO! For the first time, India to launch Colombian satellite from PSLV-C43 on November 29.

For the first time ever, a Colombian satellite will be launched from Sriharikota by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) along with other countries onboard PSLV-C43 on Nov 29.

The workhorse of ISRO will be carrying India’s earth observation satellite HysIS and 30 satellites from other countries out of which almost 23 belong to the US.

Sources confirmed to FE that “Colombia has chosen to get its satellite launched by ISRO for the first time. This launch has been commercially contracted through Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO. ”

Earlier this year, FE was the first to break the news of South American nation Colombia being in touch with ISRO to launch the nano-satellite belonging to Colombian air force, ‘Facsat1’, which is 30 cm long and 10 metres high, and will be used for that country’s national security, as well as monitor the effects of climate change and prevent emergencies.

According to ISRO, PSLV’s 45th flight will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota and the satellite will be placed in 636 km polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO) with an inclination of 97.957 deg. The mission life of the satellite is 5 years.

The main aim of India’s HysIS is to study the earth’s surface in visible, near infrared and shortwave infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum.

The other satellites which will be onboard are micro and nano satellites from other countries including the US, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Finland, Malaysia, Netherlands and Spain, will be put in a 504 km orbit by the work horse.

It was after India’s successful Mars mission some years ago that which was proved that ISRO has the capability of achieving inter-planetary missions in a cost-effective manner, that several countries from across the globe have started looking at the agency for launching their satellites.

As reported earlier by FE, countries including Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Peru, Venezuela, Bolivia and Nicaragua are reaching out to the space agency for launching or developing satellites.

In 2017, for launching its first homemade palm-sized satellite, the University of Chile got a ride onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C38 rocket. The faculty of the university is already working with professors at IIT-Madras for doing joint missions.

Launch, of SUCHAI, the nano-satellite of the University of Chile, was successfully accomplished by ISRO at the end of June 2017. The SUCHAI project was a standardised satellite of Cubesat type of 1 litre of volume and 1 kg of weight. Also, it was the first ever satellite built in Chile by students at the university.

The Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), which already has long-standing space cooperation with China, has been in touch with ISRO and the ground stations in Brazil (Alcantara and Cuiaba) which have been providing tracking support for Indian satellites (Chandrayaan-I, Megha Tropiques, MOM, and ASTROSAT) on a commercial basis.

Even Bolivian Space Agency (ABE) has concluded a MoU on space cooperation with ISRO, which will help to conduct preliminary studies of establishing a ground station in Bolivia for supporting India’s space agency’ s space operations.(Source:Livemint)