India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its thirty-seventh flight (PSLV-C35), will launch the 377 kg SCATSAT-1 for ocean and weather related studies and seven co-passenger satellites into polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO) on September 26. The co-passenger satellites are from Algeria, Canada and the USA as well as two satellites from Indian Universities/ Academic Institute.

A senior ISRO official said that the PSLV-C35 is scheduled to be launched on Monday at 9:12 hrs (IST) from SDSC SHAR , Sriharikota.

SCATSAT-1 will be placed into a 720 km Polar SSO whereas; the two Universities/ Academic Institute Satellites and the five foreign satellites will be placed into a 670 km polar orbit. This is the first mission of PSLV in which it will be launching its payloads into two different orbits.

PSLV-C35 will be launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

It will be the fifteenth flight of PSLV in ‘XL’ configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).

SCATSAT-1 is a continuity mission for Oceansat-2 Scatterometer to provide wind vector data products for weather forecasting, cyclone detection and tracking services to the users. The satellite carries Ku-band scatterometer similar to the one flown onboard Oceansat-2.

The spacecraft is built around standard IMS-2 Bus and the mass of the spacecraft is 377 kg. The spacecraft will be put in SSP orbit of 720 km altitude with an inclination of 98.1 deg by PSLV-C35. The mission life of the satellite is 5 years.