PSLV-C38 carried the Indian mapping satellite Cartosat-2E as its main payload that weighed 712 kg (1,570 lb). 30 smaller satellites were carried as secondary payload, among them the Indian university NIUSAT monitoring satellite, Japanese CE-SAT1 technology demonstrator, Austrian AT-03 Pegasus research satellite and American CICERO-6 weather satellite. Satellites of Belgium, Chile, the Czech RepublicVZLUSat-1, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, SlovakiaSkCube, and the United Kingdom were also launched.[2]
The NIUSAT satellite, weighing around 15 kg (33 lb), was prepared as a collaborative work by over 200 students of the Noorul Islam University, Kanyakumari and is used for disaster management and crop monitoring. The work on the satellite began in 2007 and cost ₹37 crore (US$4.3 million) with help from ISRO. It was conceived by University's chancellor A. P. Majeed Khan post 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami disaster.[3]
Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Jitendra Singh stated that ISRO earned ₹45.2 crore (EUR 6.1 million) from launching foreign satellites on PSLV-C38.[4][5]