India launches latest communication satellite CMS-01 on board Polar rocket

Dec 17, 2020

SRIHARIKOTA: India successfully launched its latest communication satellite CMS-01 on board its Polar rocket from the spaceport here on Thursday, the second and last launch this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. ISRO's trusted polar satellite launch vehicle--PSLV-C50-- injected the satellite around 20 minutes after the lift-off from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota.

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.