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Coimbatore
ISRO successfully launches RESOURCESAT-2A satellite
December 7, 2016
Chennai: India’s latest remote sensing satellite, RESOURCESAT-2A, was successfully launched by ISRO’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Wednesday.
RESOURCESAT-2A, intended for resource monitoring, is a follow on mission to RESOURCESAT-1 and RESOURCESAT-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively. It is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by RESOURCESAT-1 and 2.
Describing it as a “successful” launch, ISRO Chairman AS Kiran Kumar said it is going to provide continuity to “our three tier imaging data, which will be extremely useful for various applications of land and water.” He noted that “it has been a perfect launch”.
“I wish to congratulate the entire ISRO team for the wonderful job they have done and for putting one more operational satellite into orbit,” Kumar said.
PSLV-C36, the 38th flight of PSLV, blasted off at 10:25 hours from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and injected RESOURCESAT-2 into the orbit in a flawless flight lasting about 18 minutes. The 1,235-kg RESOURCESAT-2A was placed in an 817-km polar Sun Synchronous Orbit (SSO), ISRO said.
In this flight, the ‘XL’ version of PSLV with six solid strap-on motors was used. RESOURCESAT-2A carries three payloads which are similar to those of RESOURCESAT-1 and 2.
They include a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-4) camera operating in three spectral bands in the Visible and Near Infrared Region (VNIR), medium resolution LISS-3 camera operating in three-spectral bands in VNIR and one in Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) band, and coarse resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera operating in three spectral bands in VNIR and one band in SWIR, with specified spatial resolutions, ISRO said.
RESOURCESAT-2A also carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Gb each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations, it added. The mission life of RESOURCESAT-2A is five years.
The satellite was earlier planned for launch on November 28. PSLV, ISRO’s versatile launch vehicle, has 36 successful launches to its credit so far. From 1994 to 2016, PSLV has launched a total of 121 satellites, including 79 from abroad.
