Indian Space Research Organisation is ready to launch remote sensing satellite RESOURCESAT-2A from Sriharikota on December 7. The satellite will be launched using 44.4 meter tall The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-36 (PSLV C36).
The remote sensing satellite RESOURCESAT-2A is 1,235 kg in weight and will be put into an 827 km polar Sun Synchronous orbit about 18 minutes after lift-off. The mission life of RESOURCESAT-2A will be five years. It will succeed RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2 that were launched in 2003 and 2011 to provide remote sensing data services to global users. RESOURCESAT-2A is equipped with a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner camera along with a medium resolution LISS-3 camera and an advanced wide field sensor camera. Two solid state recorders on the satellite would store images captured by cameras.
This will be the 38th flight of PSLV C36, a trusted workhorse of ISRO. The blast off will take place at 10.24 AM from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. PSLV has so far registered 36 successful launches and placed satellites in various orbits including low earth orbits, sun synchronous orbit, geosynchronous transfer orbit and sub-GTO. On September 26, PSLV successfully launched eight satellites, including Indian satellite SCATSAT-1 and other overseas satellites. This mission took two hours to complete.
Founded in 1969 and headquartered in Bengaluru, ISRO is the space agency of India that was created with an aim to lead India in space science research and planetary exploration. The vision of ISRO is to “harness space technology for national development”.
Prior to ISRO, Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR), created in 1962, was responsible for managing space research program in India. India’s Department of Space, which reports to the Prime Minister of India, manages all the activities of ISRO.
India’s first satellite, Aryabhata, was made by ISRO. Named after Indian mathematician Aryabhata, the satellite was launched in 1975 by the Soviet Union. In 1980, ISRO got success in placing the Rohini satellite in orbit using an Indian-made launch vehicle, SLV-3. Over the years, ISRO successfully developed two other Rockets – the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) – for launching satellites into polar and geostationary orbits respectively.
In the past three decades, these rockets have put several communications and earth observation satellites in orbits.
ISRO grabbed the attention of the whole world by creating lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1and Mars Orbiter Mission (MOS). Chandrayaan-1 was sent to moon on 22 October 2008. MOS also got success in entering the Mars orbit on 24 September 2014, thus making India the world’s first nation to succeed on its first attempt. India also became the first space agency in Asia and fourth in the world to have successfully reached Mars orbit.
In May 2016, India successfully launched its first-ever indigenous space shuttle – the Re-Usable Launch Vehicle – Technology Demonstrator (RLV-TD) from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
RLV-TD, the country’s first winged-body aerospace vehicle, is being said to be the ISRO’s first step towards developing a reusable launch vehicle that would be capable of sending spacecraft into orbit and then returning to the Earth. After this technology is developed completely, it would be possible to launch spacecraft, including satellites, into space and make them re-enter earth’s atmosphere. During re-entry, the spacecraft would withstand extreme pressure and heat conditions, and then land in at an intended spot. The technology would substantially reduce costs of launch of space vehicles.
ISRO is currently working on several other projects, including development of GSLV Mk III, ULV, reusable launch vehicle, human spaceflight, interplanetary probes, solar spacecraft mission, etc.
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