SRIHARIKOTA, Jan 11: ISRO on Sunday commenced a 22.5-hour countdown for the launch of a PSLV rocket that will place an earth observation satellite along with 14 other co-passenger satellites into orbit, marking the space agency’s first launch of the year.
Undertaken by the NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, the 14 other co-passenger satellites belong to domestic and overseas customers.
The lift-off of the PSLV-C62 rocket, with a lift off mass of 260 tonne, has been rescheduled to 10.18 hrs on January 12 from the earlier 10.17 am on Monday, ISRO said.
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“Yes. Countdown started at 12.48 pm. 22 hours 30 minutes duration. Launch is at 10.18 hrs tomorrow,” ISRO sources told PTI on Sunday.
The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission would initially deploy the Earth Observation Satellite built by Thailand and the United Kingdom, followed by 13 other co-passenger satellites into the sun-synchronous orbit around 17 minutes after lift-off.
Subsequently, the separation of the fourth stage of the rocket (PS4) and demonstration of Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID) capsule, weighing about 25 kg, belonging to a Spanish startup, is expected to take place in over 2 hours after the launch.
According to ISRO, scientists would restart the fourth stage of the rocket to demonstrate the KID capsule to make its re-entry into the earth atmosphere.
For this to occur, the scientists would re-start the fourth stage to de-boost and enter a re-entry trajectory, and this will be followed by the KID capsule separation.
Both the PS4 stage and the KID capsule (which will be the last co-passenger) will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and make a splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, ISRO said.
PSLV has completed 63 flights so far, including the ambitious Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 mission.
The previous launch of a PSLV rocket, was the PSLV C-61 Earth Observation Satellite 09 mission launched on May 18, 2025. It could not be accomplished due to an ‘observation’ in the third stage of the rocket. (PTI)
