RISAT-2 India’s First Spy Satellite Launched Watch Videos

By admin on April 20th, 2009

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Monday successfully launched a revolutionary spy satellite that will help security agencies in monitoring internal and external security across the border.

RISAT-2 is India’s first all-weather spy satellite, while Anusat is an experimental mini communication satellite developed by Anna University in Chennai.

RISAT-2 will enhance India`s capability in the management of disasters such as floods, cyclones and landslips. It weighs 300 kg and has an all-weather, 24-hour capability for imaging the earth. It can be used for defence purposes also since it has a synthetic aperture radar (SAR), built by the Israel Aerospace Industries.

RISAT-2 has a life span of three years.

The Anna University-developed Anusat will carry out drought and wasteland monitoring, urban planning and other studies. It weighs 40 kg and has a life span of one year. The Madras Institute of Technology, College of Engineering, Chennai and Pune University will be the users of the micro-education satellite.

The PSLV-C12, carrying the 300-kg spy satellite Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT-2) and the 40-kg Micro Satellite ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO’s Satish Dhawan space Centre on Monday morning.

At the end of a 48-hour countdown, the 44-meter tall four-stage PSLV-C12 blasted off from the second launch pad with the ignition of the core first stage.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, weighing 230 tonnes at the time of launch, soared into a clear sky at 0645 hrs IST from the spaceport, about 90 km north of Chennai.

This is the 15th flight of ISRO’s workhorse PSLV, which had launched 30 satellites (14 for India and 16 for foreign countries) into a variety of orbits since 1993.

History of RISAT

Designed by the Israeli Aerospace Industries, RISAT can take images through the thickest cloud cover, rain, snow or fog conditions during night and day.

While the RISAT will be used extensively for purposes like mapping, managing natural disasters and surveying the seas, it can also see through camouflage like cloth or foliage used to conceal camps or vehicles.

RISAT will enable India to keep a watch on terror camps, military installations across boundaries, missile sites and suchlike.

However, RISAT is not India’s first spy satellite. The Technology Experiment Satellite has been used for photo-reconnaissance since 2001.

But unlike previous remote sensing satellites, RISAT is the first with a synthetic aperture radar, which gives it a day-night, all-weather snooping capability

It should also help keep track of ships at sea that could pose a threat.

The RISAT will reduce India’s dependence on foreign suppliers like Ikonos for satellite imagery. But many more gaps need to be plugged. Despite the desperate need, India is still awaiting a dedicated military satellite.

Videos of Launching of RISAT-2 in Orbit