A group of satellites (on photography), 88 Dove, plus another 16 spacecraft, are ready to launch on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) space rocket of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
ISRO is preparing for its first launch this year on Tuesday evening with a whopping 104 satellites stationed on board the PSLV.
The launch of the rocket, which made 34 impressively successful launches over 18 years, is scheduled for 10:28 pm on Tuesday (EST) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikot.
The main payload was the 1574-pound satellite Earth observation Cartosat-2. But the rocket also includes a record 103 cubesat satellites (ultra-small artificial vehicles) with a combined weight of 1,464 pounds. The main part of the small satellites belongs to Planet in San Francisco (formerly Planet Lab), which intends to use its Dove fleet, the size of a shoebox, to take daily photographs of the Earth for commercial, environmental and humanitarian purposes.
88 satellites will join satellites operating in orbit. In combination with RapidEye and Dove, hovering in other orbits, Planet will begin its daily imaging mission. Earlier this month, Planet announced that they had also purchased satellites from Terra Bella (from Alphabet).
Cartosat and Doves are miniature satellites belonging to India, Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the USA.
