Broadbandindia Magazine

ISRO’s ambitious and eminent Polar Satellite Launching Vehicle (PSLV) C-15 has been launched successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9.22am on Monday, 12th July from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The vehicle has carried total 5 satellites including the much talked about Cartosat-2B that will help in making urban planning and infrastructural development better. The PSLV-C-15 is divided in 4 stages and has a length of 44.4 metres. Apart from Cartosat-2B. A set of four satellites including Studsat built by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Alsat from Algeria, two nano satellites from Canada and Switzerland, and a pico (very small) satellite called Oceansat 2 accompanied Cartosat 2 on its trip to orbit. Planning Commission Vice-Chairman Montek Singh Ahuluwalia, and former ISRO chief Dr K Kasturirangan witnessed the launch. It has been a wonderful experience.

The ISRO has made the country proud,” Ahluwalia said, congratulating the scientists after the perfect take off. The PSLV launch assumes significance as it comes about three months after ISRO suffered a major setback on April 15 when the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3), which was launched using an Indian-designed and built cryogenic engine for the first time, failed and fell into the Bay of Bengal. Cartosat-2B is an advanced remote sensing satellite built by ISRO. This is the latest in the Indian remote sensing satellite series and the 17th in this series.

Cartosat-2B is mainly intended to augment remote sensing data services to the users of multiple spot scene imagery with 0.8 metre spatial resolution and 9.6 km  swath in the panchromatic. Cartosat-2 and 2A, two Indian remote sensing satellites in orbit, are currently providing such services.

Cartosat-2B carries a panchromatic camera similar to that of its predecessors – Cartosat-2 and 2A and was capable of imaging a swath (geographical strip of land) of 9.6 km with a resolution of 0.8 metre. The multiple spot scene imagery sent by Cartosat-2B camera would also be useful for village/ cadastral level resource assessment and mapping, detailed urban and infrastructure planning and development, transportation system planning, preparation of largescale cartographic maps, preparation of micro watershed development plans and monitoring of evelopment works of village.

An unmanned test crew module will be put into orbit by ISRO in 2013 as a prelude to the country’s maiden manned mission to send two Indians into space. ISRO also said that a third launch pad, at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, is proposed to be built at Sriharikota, where the rocket that will take the Indian astronauts into space will be assembled and blast off. Dr K Radhakrishnan said the space agency plans to launch the first test unmanned mission with an unmanned capsule on PSLV, which will be put into orbit and recovered soon after the mission. ISRO has prepared a road map with an initial plan to put two humans in orbit around Earth, keep them there for seven days and bring them back safely, Dr Radhakrishnan said. He said all new elements for the unmanned launch have been designed.