PSLV-C40 was the 42nd mission of the Indian

Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is an expendable medium-lift launch vehicle designed and operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was developed to allow India to launch its Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellites ...

(PSLV) program in the XL configuration. PSLV-C40 successfully carried and deployed 31

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioisotope ...

s in

sun-synchronous orbit A Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), also called a heliosynchronous orbit, is a nearly polar orbit around a planet, in which the satellite passes over any given point of the planet's surface at the same local mean solar time. More technically, it is ...

Overview

Two

Surrey Satellite Technology Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd, or SSTL, is a company involved in the manufacture and operation of small satellites. A spin-off company of the University of Surrey, it is presently wholly owned by Airbus Defence and Space. The company began ...

satellites were launched, the 100 kg

Carbonite-2 The Defence Intelligence Fusion Centre (DIFC) is based at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire. Largely created from the staff of the National Imagery Exploitation Centre (formerly known as the Joint Air Reconnaissance Intelligence Centre (JARIC)) and th ...

Earth Observation technology demonstrator and the 168 kg

Telesat Telesat, formerly Telesat Canada, is a Canadian satellite communications company founded on May 2, 1969. The company is headquartered in Ottawa. History Telesat began as Telesat Canada, a Canadian Crown corporation created by an Act of Parli ...

LEO Phase 1 communications satellite. Four

SpaceBEE Swarm Technologies, Inc. is a private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet Of Things (IoT) devices using a Store and forward design. Social Capital incubated Swarm, Craft Ventures was an ...

sub-

CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of miniaturized satellite based around a form factor consisting of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit, and often use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and structure. CubeSats ...

s were launched to test "2-way satellite communications and data relay", probably for the Silicon Valley company

Swarm Technologies Swarm Technologies, Inc. is a private company building a low Earth orbit satellite constellation for communications with Internet Of Things (IoT) devices using a Store and forward design. Social Capital incubated Swarm, Craft Ventures was an ea ...

. However the U.S.

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC) had denied regulatory approval for Swarm Technologies 10 cm × 10 cm × 2.8 cm BEE satellites as they were too small to be reliably tracked by the

United States Space Surveillance Network The United States Space Surveillance Network (SSN) detects, tracks, catalogs and identifies artificial objects orbiting Earth, e.g. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris. The system is the responsibility of Uni ...

, so may become an impact hazard to other satellites. If confirmed the FCC may take regulatory action over these satellites.

Launched satellites

* Astranis DemoSat-2 *

Cartosat-2F Cartosat-2F is the eighth satellite in the Cartosat-2 Series. It is an Earth observation satellite launched on the PSLV-C40 mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). History Originally, Cartosat-2E was published as the las ...

(

Cartosat-2 Cartosat-2 is an Earth observation satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit and the second of the Cartosat series of satellites. The satellite was built, launched and maintained by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Weighing around 68 ...

series satellite) * ICEYE-X1 * INS-1C * Microsat *

PicSat PicSat is a French observatory nanosatellite, designed to measure the transit of Beta Pictoris b, an exoplanet which orbits the star Beta Pictoris. PicSat was designed and built by a team of scientists led by Dr. Sylvestre Lacour, astrophysi ...

* Arkyd-6

References

External links

* Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle Spacecraft launched by India in 2018 January 2018 events in India {{Space-stub