Isro ushered in the New Year with the successful launch of XPoSat (X-ray Polarimeter Satellite), India’s first satellite to conduct research on black holes and other celestial objects. With the successful launch, India has become the second country in the world after the US to send a specialised astronomy observatory to study black holes and neutron stars in our galaxy.
PSLV placed the satellite on its 60th flight in a 650km orbit. The final stage of PSLV-C58 then turned into an orbital experimental module (POEM) to test the 10 payloads over the next month.
Around 22 minutes after the lift-off from Sriharikota, the rocket injected XPoSat.
The rocket went through at least two coasting phases -when the engines were not fired -to place the satellite with a 6-degree inclination.
XPoSat will carry out studies of X-rays emitted by celestial objects like black holes, neutron stars and galactic nuclei.
It carries two payloads -Polix (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) by Raman Research Institute and Xspect (Xray spectroscopy and timing) by Space Astronomy Group of URSC.