The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday successfully launched PSLV-C47 carrying Cartosat-3 spacecraft and 13 nanosatellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

The Cartosat-3 spacecraft and 13 commercial satellites from USA were successfully placed in their designated orbits.

Speaking after the launch, ISRO chief Dr K Sivan said: “I am happy that PSLV-C47 was injected precisely in the orbit with 13 other satellites.” He further said Cartosat-3 is the highest resolution civilian satellite.

The ISRO has 13 missions lined up till March – sic large vehicle missions and seven satellite missions, Sivan added.

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) rocket carrying advanced earth observation satellite Cartosat-3 and 13 US nano satellites lifted off from the second launch pad of the rocket port in Sriharikota on Wednesday.

With today’s achievement, India has crossed the milestone of launching 300 foreign satellites.

According to ISRO, the Cartosat-3 is an advanced agile satellite to obtain panchromatic and multispectral imagery with an operational life of five years.

The payload has the capability of take sharp pictures with a ground resolution of 0.25 metre in Panchromatic and 1 metre ground resolution or ground sample distance (GSD) in 4 Band Multispectral modes with a swath of 16 km, said ISRO.

The Indian space agency also said, Cartosat-3 has many new technologies/elements like highly agile structural platform, payload platform, higher rate data handling and transmission systems, advanced onboard computer and new power electronics, dual gimbal antenna and others.

To be placed in an orbit of 509 km at an inclination of 97.5 degrees, the Cartosat-3 will furnish images that cater to the demand of urban planning, rural resource and infrastructure development, coastal land use and land cover and also for strategic/defence purposes.

The Indian space agency officials used to say that they would supply the required images for various agencies. It is for the user agency to decide on the image use.

Sharing the ride with Cartosat-3 are 13 nano satellites from the USA for an undisclosed fee to be paid to NewSpace India Ltd — the new commercial arm of ISRO.

According to ISRO, 12 of the US nano satellites are named as FLOCK-4P are earth observation satellites and the 13th is called MESHBED, a communication test bed satellite.

The 44-metre-tall, about 320 ton PSLV-XL is a four stage/engine rocket powered by solid and liquid fuels alternatively. The rocket has six strap-on booster motors to give additional thrust during the initial flight stages.

However, what is intriguing is the first commercial order to put into orbit 13 American nanosatellites for NewSpace India which was formed only in March 2019 with its business plan identical to that of Antrix Corporation, the first commercial arm of ISRO.