PSLV launch rescheduled

A press release from ISRO stated that the rescheduling of the launch was decided after “a marginal drop in the pressure in the second stage of the vehicle was noticed during mandatory checks carried out on the PSLV-C15 vehicle.”

The new date for the launch of PSLV-C15 mission will be decided after preliminary results of the analysis are obtained, according to the release. PSLV-C15 will be carrying India’s Cartosat-2B, an Algerian satellite ALSAT-2A, two nano satellites NLS 6.1 and NLS 6.2 from University of Toronto, Canada and STUDSAT, a satellite built by students from seven academic institutions in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh.

The delay comes two weeks after the cryogenic upper stage, developed indigenously by ISRO failed to perform, resulting in the loss of GSLV-D3 launch vehicle. That vehicle was carrying the advanced communications satellite GSAT-4 on board.

Cartosat-2B the remote sensing satellite, which is being carried aboard the PSLV-C15, consists of a sophisticated panchromatic camera on board to take higher (0.8 metre) spatial resolution imageries with a swath of 9.6 km of specific spots for cartographic applications such as mapping, land information and geographical information system.