After successfully launched number of satellite, ISRO (Indian Space Research

Organization) have launched a revolutionary satellite on Monday. Radar Imagine

Satellite RISAT-2 is a imaging satellite that can identify features on ground. Few of the
application may help security agencies to monitor the hundreds of mountain, remote
areas, valleys that connect to India with various neighbour countries’s border.

The PSLV-C12, Carrying 300-kg satellite RISAT-2 and the 40-kg micro satellite
ANUSAT lifted off from ISRO’s Satish Dhavan Space Center at 6:45 am IST on
Monday 20th April 2009.

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[PSLV], weighing 230 tones 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.

RISAT-2 is fully functional with all weather capability to take various images of
Earth object. ANUSAT is the first student-made satellite built by an Indian university.
ANUSAT will demonstrate the message store and forward operations technologies.

In brief about 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 such like.

However, RISAT is not India’s first imagine satellite. The Technology

Experiment Satellite has been used for photo-recognaissance since 2001.

But unlike previous remote sensing satellites, RISAT is the first with 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.

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