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India’s ‘Eye in the Sky’ Cartosat-2 Series Satellite

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38), launched the 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 243 kg at lift-off into a 505 km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO). PSLV-C38 was launched from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. This is the seventeenth flight of PSLV in 'XL' configuration (with the use of solid strap-on motors).
The co-passenger satellites comprise 29 Nano satellites from 14 countries namely, Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, United Kingdom and United States of America as well as one Nano satellite (NIUSAT) from India. The total weight of all these satellites carried on-board PSLV-C38 is about 955 kg.

The 29 International customer Nano satellites were launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS) and the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.

Cartosat-2 Series Satellite

Current Affairs

Cartosat-2 Series Satellite is the primary satellite carried by PSLV-C38. This remote sensing satellite is similar in configuration to earlier satellites in the series with the objective of providing high-resolution scene specific spot imagery.

The imagery sent by satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) as well as Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

Launch Mass: 712 kg
Launch Vehicle: PSLV-C38 / Cartosat-2 Series Satellite
Type of Satellite: Earth Observation
Application: Earth Observation
Orbit Type: SSPO

NIUSAT
NIUSAT is an Indian University/Academic Institute satellite from Noorul Isalm University in Tamil Nadu State, launched by PSLV-C38. This 15 kg three axis stabilised satellite is built to provide multispectral imagery for agricultural crop monitoring and disaster management support applications.

A dedicated Mission Control Centre with UHF/VHF antenna for Telemetry/Tele-command operations and S-band antenna for Payload data reception has been established at the university.
Mass: 15 kg
Orbit: 505 km SSPO
Launch Mass: 15 kg
Orbit Type: SSPO

Earth Observation Satellites
Starting with IRS-1A in 1988, ISRO has launched many operational remote sensing satellites. Today, India has one of the largest constellations of remote sensing satellites in operation. Currently, thirteen operational satellites are in Sun-synchronous orbit – RESOURCESAT-1, 2, 2A CARTOSAT-1, 2, 2A, 2B, RISAT-1 and 2, OCEANSAT-2, Megha-Tropiques, SARAL and SCATSAT-1, and *four* in Geostationary orbit- INSAT-3D, Kalpana & INSAT 3A, INSAT -3DR.

Varieties of instruments have been flown onboard these satellites to provide necessary data in a diversified spatial, spectral and temporal resolutions to cater to different user requirements in the country and for global usage. The data from these satellites are used for several applications covering agriculture, water resources, urban planning, rural development, mineral prospecting, environment, forestry, ocean resources and disaster management.

List of Earth Observation Satellites launched in 2016 & 17

 

Launch Date

Launch Mass

Launch Vehicle

Orbit Type

Application

Cartosat-2 Series Satellite

Jun 23, 2017

712 kg

PSLV-C38 / Cartosat-2 Series Satellite

SSPO

Earth Observation

Cartosat -2 Series Satellite

Feb 15, 2017

714 kg

PSLV-C37 / Cartosat -2 Series Satellite

SSPO

Earth Observation

RESOURCESAT-2A

Dec 07, 2016

1235 kg

PSLV-C36 / RESOURCESAT-2A

SSPO

Earth Observation

SCATSAT-1

Sep 26, 2016

371 kg

PSLV-C35 / SCATSAT-1

SSPO

Climate & Environment

INSAT-3DR

Sep 08, 2016

2211 kg

GSLV-F05 / INSAT-3DR

GSO

Climate & Environment, Disaster Management System

CARTOSAT-2 Series Satellite

Jun 22, 2016

737.5 kg

PSLV-C34 / CARTOSAT-2 Series Satellite

SSPO

Earth Observation

Published date : 28 Jun 2017 12:23PM

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