ISRO'S PSLVC-45 successfully injected electronic intelligence satellite Emisat along with 28 international customer satellites into sun-synchronous polar orbit today.

The mission marks several firsts to the credit of the space agency as it will manoeuvre satellites in various orbits and orbital experiments, including on maritime satellite applications.

According to ISRO, a new variant of the rocket PSLV-QL equipped with four Strap-On motors in the first stage is used for the launch.

PSLV, also used in India’s two key missions, Chandrayan in 2008 and Mars Orbiter in 2013, is a reliable and versatile launch vehicle for ISRO with 39 consecutive successful flights till June, 2017 and five in a row from January 2018.

The 28 international customer satellites are from four countries, viz. Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and USA. All these satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements.

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