Few quick facts about ISRO’s PSLV-C29 launch today at 6pm

ISRO scientists are all geared up for the 32^nd launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-PSLV-C29 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the spaceport of Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.  It will launch 6 Singaporean satellites which could help in areas like urban planning and disaster management across Southeast Asia.

• The satellites to be launched at an interval of 30 seconds to avoid collision.
• For the first time the satellites will orbit around the equator & collect data that can help those residing in the equatorial region.
• The satellites will monitor threats from the sea, air and other natural disasters.

• The satellite can capture images of Singapore once every 100 minutes and tracks threats in the sea and air as well as natural disaster across the region. The satellites are made by NUS, NTU and engineering- commercial company ST Electronics.

• ISRO is using its trusted workhorse PSLV which is on its 32nd flight in 'core-alone' configuration without the use of solid strap-on motors. "The satellites will be able to produce information at a much higher frequency. This will surely be very important when you use it for disaster monitoring in the region like Southeast Asia," Project Director of the Satellite Programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS) Professor Goh Cher Hiang said.

• Of the six satellites, TeLEOS-1 is the primary satellite weighing 400 kgs whereas the other five satellites include two micro-satellites and three nano-satellites. TeLEOS-1 is the first Singapore commercial earth observation satellite. It will be launched into a low Earth orbit for "remote sensing" applications. Antrix Corporation Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO, has provided launch services in PSLV for 51 customer satellites from 20 countries so far.

----With inputs from PTI