The 48-hour countdown for the launch of India’s Cartosat-2 series and 19 other satellites on June 22 began here this morning, the Indian Space Research Oranisation said.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) would lift off from the rocket port at Sriharikota on that day at 9.25 a.m. Its main cargo would be India’s 725.5 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for observation of earth.

The other 19 satellites, weighing around 560 kg, are from the USA, Canada, Germany, Indonesia and two other satellites – one each from the Sathyabama University, Chennai and College of Engineering, Pune.

The rocket would blast off from the second launch pad with a total payload of 1,288 kg. The entire mission would get over in 26 minutes.

The images sent by Cartosat would be useful for cartographic, urban and rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications.

While the 1.5kg Sathyabama Sat would collect data on green house gases, the one kilo Swayam satellite from the Pune institute would provide point-to-point messaging services to the HAM radio community.

This is the first time that ISRO would be launching more than 10 satellites. In 2008, it had launched 10 satellites along with the PSLV rocket.