ISRO to launch another remote sensing satellite of RESOURCESAT series on December 7

December 04, 2016

Chennai: Capping a year of successful launches, Indian Space Research Organisation is all set to launch PSLV-C36 carrying remote sensing satellite RESOURCESAT-2A from the spaceport of Sriharikota on December 7, the space agency said today.

The 44.4 metre tall PSLV C36 is expected to place the 1,235 kg RESOURCESAT-2A into an 827km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit in about 18 minutes after lift off.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C36, in its 38th flight, will blast off at 10.24 AM from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, about 125 km from here, ISRO said on its website.

The mission life of the satellite is five years.

RESOURCESAT-2A is a remote sensing satellite developed by ISRO and succeeds RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2 launched in 2003 and 2011, respectively.

It is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users and would carry similar payloads as carried by its predecessors RESOURCESAT-1 & RESOURCESAT-2.

RESOURCESAT-2A would carry a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner camera, medium resolution LISS-3 camera and an advanced wide field sensor camera that operates in various bands.

It would also carry two solid state recorders with a capacity of 200GB to store the images taken by the cameras and which can be shared with ground stations.

A trusted workhorse of the space agency, PSLV has launched satellites in various orbits including sun synchronous orbit, low earth orbits, geosynchronous transfer orbt and sub-GTO, registering 36 successful launches so far.

Between 1994 and 2016, PSLV has successfully launched 121 satellites of which 79 are from overseas, the rest being Indian satellites, ISRO said.

On September 8, ISRO launched advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR onboard GSLV-F05, tasting success on its maiden operational flight of its heavy-duty rocket fitted with the indigenous cryogenic upper stage.

On September 26, in its longest ever mission spread over two hours, PSLV successfully launched eight satellites, including the country’s SCATSAT-1 and five satellites from other nations, in two different orbits to achieve another milestone.

GSAT-18, India’s communication satellite, was launched on October 6 by a heavy-duty rocket of Arianespace from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guiana.

RESOURCESAT-2A

RESOURCESAT-2A is a Remote Sensing satellite intended for resource monitoring. RESOURCESAT-2A is a follow on mission to RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively. RESOURCESAT-2A is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2

RESOURCESAT-2A carries three payloads which are similar to those of RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2. They are a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-4) camera operating in three spectral bands in the Visible and Near Infrared Region (VNIR) with 5.8 m spatial resolution and steerable up to ± 26 deg across track to achieve a five day revisit capability. The second payload is the medium resolution LISS-3 camera operating in three-spectral bands in VNIR and one in Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) band with 23.5 m spatial resolution. The third payload is a coarse resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera operating in three spectral bands in VNIR and one band in SWIR with 56 m spatial resolution.

RESOURCESAT-2A carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Giga Bits each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations.

PSLV-C36 / RESOURCESAT-2A is scheduled to be launched on December 07, 2016 at 10:24 hrs (IST) from SDSC SHAR, Sriharikota.

Launch Vehicle: PSLV-C36 / RESOURCESAT-2A

Type of Satellite: Earth Observation

Manufacturer: ISRO

Owner: ISRO

Application: Earth Observation

Orbit Type: SSPO