ISRO's workhorse PSLV does it again

Out of the 15 satellite launch missions it has flown since 1993, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has delivered successful results except for once.

Out of the 15 satellite launch missions it has flown since 1993, Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has delivered successful results except for once.

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The failure happened on its first developmental flight Sep 20, 1993. After the success of the next two developmental flights there has been no looking back for the 44 metre tall workhorse of the ISRO.

The successful missions resulted in ISRO getting launch orders for small satellites from other countries.

In the international launch arena, PSLV's addressable market segment is mainly light weight satellites for placement in polar orbit.

Till date, ISRO has launched 16 satellites of other space agencies using PSLV. The heaviest is the 500 kg Italian satellite Agile in 2004 followed by Israeli satellite TecSAR that weighed 300 kg.

The following is the list of ISRO satellites launched so far:

1. PSLV-D1 Sep 20,1993 (The only unsuccessful launch)

2. PSLV-D2 Oct 15, 1994

3. PSLV-D3 March 21,1996

4. PSLV-C1 Sep 29,1997

5. PSLV-C2 May 26,1999

6. PSLV-C3 Oct 22, 2001

7. PSLV-C4 Sep 12, 2002

8. PSLV-C5 Oct 17,2003

9. PSLV-C6 May 5, 2005

10. PSLV-C7 Jan 10,2007

11. PSLV-C8 April 23, 2007

12. PSLV-C10 Jan 21, 2008

13. PSLV-C9 April 28, 2008

14. PSLV-C11 Oct 22, 2008

15. PSLV-C12 April 20, 2009