Save the date! ISRO to launch 31 satellites on January 12

New Delhi: Late last month, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced its first mission of 2018 – the launch of 31 satellites, including earth observation spacecraft Cartosat on January 10.

However, the launch date has now been changed to January 12, Friday – two days after the tentative date.

"The rocket launch to carry Cartosat and other satellites, including 28 from the US and five other countries, will take place on January 12 at 9.30 a.m.," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Public Relations Director Devi Prasad Karnik told IANS here.

"There is no delay in the schedule as the earlier stated launch date of January 10 was merely tentative," stated Karnik.

The rocket launch would take place from ISRO's spaceport located at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The first space mission in 2018 on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40) comes four months after a similar rocket failed to deliver the country's eighth navigation satellite in the earth's lower orbit on August 31, 2017.

The mission's payload will also include one each nano and microsatellite from India, besides Cartosat-2.

As an observational satellite, Cartosat will beam high-quality images for cartographic, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation and utility management like road network monitoring.

(With IANS inputs)