ISRO's Cartosat-2 satellite will provide high resolution data for defence and developmental activities.
After the successful launch of Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) most powerful Indian-made rocket on June 5, GSLV Mk III dubbed Baahubali, the space agency today launched 712-kg Cartosat-2 series satellite which was carried by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C38) from Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the agency for the feat and said in a tweet, "Congratulations to ISRO on its 40th successful Polar satellite launch carrying 31 satellites from 15 countries. You make us proud!"
The PSLV-C38 successfully placed Noorul Islam University's NIUSAT satellite into the orbit, which will help in crop monitoring and disaster management. The 44-metre tall and 320-ton rocket also carried 29 small satellites from 15 different countries including the US in its 40th flight.
This is the 39th consecutively successful launch of the PSLV-C38, 'the Workhorse of ISRO'.
Cartosat-2, which will orbit the earth from 500 km above, is capable of counting the number of army tanks parked in hostile territories, scientists say. Earlier, the previous satellite in the series took images that came handy when surgical strikes were conducted across the Line of Control in September last year, ISRO sources said.
India already has five such satellites. The new satellite will help gather more high resolution data for developmental activities, ISRO chairman Dr AS Kiran Kumar told NDTV.
"We are forced to buy some of the images and data from alternate sources," he said. If one has to cover the entire country at least once a year, more such satellites are needed. In the coming years, the need for high resolution data will only grow, he said, particularly with the increasing monitoring activity by the states as well as the Centre.
"We have already got an approval for a constellation of three satellites providing such sub-meter resolution images," he added.
The images sent by Cartosat-2 satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and man-made features and various other land information systems and geographical information system applications.