Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on the night of September 16, successfully launched the NovaSAR and S1-4 earth observation satellites of the UK-based Surrey Satellite Technologies Ltd.
The continuing success of PSLV missions has encouraged ISRO to plan launches of 18 missions in the next six months, which is like one mission every fortnight.
We are going to have 18 missions in the next six months, virtually one launch every two weeks. – K Sivan, ISRO chairman
Some senior scientists have even disclosed planned launches: GSAT-11 mission which is a multi-beam communication satellite and is expected to launch from French Guiana; Chandrayaan-2 moon mission where ISRO will attempt to launch the lander carrying a six-wheel rover to the moon; and GSLV-MkIII-D2 missions for communication of Village Resource Centres for bridging the digital divide.
After ISRO’s first successful moon launch with Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 which orbited the moon at a height of 100 km from the lunar surface to serve the purpose of chemical, mineralogical and photo-geological study of the earth’s natural satellite, the Chandrayaan-2 has the purpose of landing the rover on the moon to study the lunar surface.
