Sriharikota (AP): India successfully launched its latest communication satellite CMS-01 on board its Polar rocket from the spaceport here Thursday. This is the second and last launch this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ISRO’s trusted polar satellite launch vehicle – PSLV-C50 – injected the communication satellite around 20 minutes after the lift-off from the second launch pad at the spaceport here.
CMS-01 is the 42nd communication satellite of the space agency and it is envisaged for providing services in Extended-C Band of the frequency spectrum covering India, Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands.
The satellite will have a life span of over seven years, according to ISRO.
PSLV-C50 is the 22nd flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (equipped with six strap-on motors), and it was the 77th launch vehicle mission from Sriharikota, about 120 km from Chennai. It follows the successful launch of PSLV-C49 (EOS-01) earth observation satellite and nine customer spacecraft on November 7 which was ISRO’s first mission of the year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Today’s launch is the last one of 2020 for ISRO.