ICT Desk

India’s space programme today began the New Year with a bang as the country’s space agency successfully launched its maiden X-Ray Polarimeter satellite that would offer several insights into celestial objects like black holes, becoming the second country after the United States to acquire the capability.

Indian Space Research Organization's 44.4-metre tall Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) carrying the satellite lifted off from a spaceport in Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh at 9.10am and successfully injected the primary X-Ray Polarimeter satellite XPoSat into a 650 Km low earth orbit, the national space agency said in X, formerly Twitter.

The satellite is set to study X-ray emissions from black holes and other celestial objects, ISRO said adding that with XpoSat's successful launch, India has become the second country after the US to send an observatory in space to study black holes and neutron stars.

Besides the X-ray Polarimeter satellite, the ISRO also placed 10 other satellites in their intended orbits.

The launch of the rocket capped a 25-hour countdown and was greeted with thunderous applause from spectators who gathered in large numbers at the spaceport situated about 135 km east of Chennai.

This is the first satellite launch of ISRO this year, a few months after the space agency successfully landed an unmanned mission on the moon and launched a separate mission to study the sun.

According to ISRO, the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XPoSat) would investigate the polarisation of intense X-ray sources in space. It is the first dedicated scientific satellite from the space agency to carry out research in space-based polarisation measurements of X-ray emission from celestial sources.

The X-Ray polarisation serves as a crucial diagnostic tool for examining the radiation mechanism and geometry of celestial sources.