ISRO Indicates MultiSats To Launch on April 28th

The Indian Space Research Organization has announced that April 28th is the date now set for the launch of their Polar Satellite Vehicle, PSLV-C9 carrying aboard their latest remote sensing satellite, known as CARTOSAT-2A, along with Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and eight nanosatellites, will launch at about 9:20 a.m. Lifting off from Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) SHAR in Sriharikota, this will be the 13th flight of PSLV and the third flight with a “core alone” configuration. CARTOSAT-2A weighs in at about 690-kg and carries a state-of-the-art Panchromatic camera (PAN) that is capable of taking black-and-white pictures in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum. The imagery will have a spatial resolution of about one metre. The camera covers a swath of about 9.6-km. The CARTOSAT-2A is steerable along, as well as across, the direction of its movement to facilitate imaging of any area more frequently. CARTOSAT-2A will form a pair with CARTOSAT-2 that was launched on January 10, 2007 providing more frequent revisit.

Indian Mini Satellite-1 (IMS-1) is developed by ISRO and will weigh 83-kg at lift-off. IMS-1 incorporates many new technologies and has miniaturized subsystems. IMS-1 carries two optical payloads, a Multispectral camera (Mx Payload) and a Hyperspectral camera (HySI Payload). Both Mx and HySI payloads operate in the visible and near infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. The resolution of Mx camera is 37-m with a swath of 151-km, while that of HySI is about 506-m with a swath of 129.5-km. The data from this mission will be made available to developing countries.

Eight nanosatellites built by universities and research institutions in Canada and Germany are also being launched under a commercial agreement with Antrix Corporation. The weight of these nanosatellites varies from 3- to 16-kg, with a total weight of about 50-kg.