ISRO on Sunday commenced a 22.5-hour countdown for the launch of a PSLV rocket that will place an earth observation satellite along with 14 other co-passenger satellites into orbit, marking the space agency’s first launch of the year.
Undertaken by the NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), the commercial arm of ISRO, the 14 other co-passenger satellites belong to domestic and overseas customers.
The lift-off of the PSLV-C62 rocket, with a lift off mass of 260 tonne, has been rescheduled to 10.18 hrs on January 12 from the earlier 10.17 am on Monday, ISRO said.
“Yes. Countdown started at 12.48 pm. 22 hours 30 minutes duration. Launch is at 10.18 hrs tomorrow,” ISRO sources told PTI on Sunday.
The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission would initially deploy the Earth Observation Satellite built by Thailand and the United Kingdom, followed by 13 other co-passenger satellites into the sun-synchronous orbit around 17 minutes after lift-off.
Subsequently, the separation of the fourth stage of the rocket (PS4) and demonstration of Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID) capsule, weighing about 25 kg, belonging to a Spanish startup, is expected to take place in over 2 hours after the launch.
According to ISRO, scientists would restart the fourth stage of the rocket to demonstrate the KID capsule to make its re-entry into the earth atmosphere.
For this to occur, the scientists would re-start the fourth stage to de-boost and enter a re-entry trajectory, and this will be followed by the KID capsule separation.
Both the PS4 stage and the KID capsule (which will be the last co-passenger) will re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere and make a splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, ISRO said.
PSLV has completed 63 flights so far, including the ambitious Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 mission.
The previous launch of a PSLV rocket, was the PSLV C-61 Earth Observation Satellite 09 mission launched on May 18, 2025. It could not be accomplished due to an ‘observation’ in the third stage of the rocket.
