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

PTI, Dec 17, 2020, 4:44 PM IST

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.