ISRO to launch Cartosat-2B in March
07 Jan 2010
Thiruvananthapuram: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning to launch the Cartosat-2B remote sensing satellite in March this year, ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan said here on Tuesday. The 2B is part of a Cartosat series that includes Cartosat-1, 2 and 2A.
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Cartosat-2A |
Last year, India orbited a military specific, high-resolution, satellite, the RISAT-2, intended to monitor the country's borders and coastline.
Cartosat- 2A was the thirteenth satellite in the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite series (IRS). It carried a Panchromatic Camera (PAN), the spatial resolution of which was better than 1m, with a swath of 9.6 km.
The Indian military has so far depended on the Cartosat series of satellites for mapping and incidental surveillance purposes.
Cartosat-2B is likely to offer less than1-meter-resolution images, up to 80 cm, and perhaps better. If so it will be second only to Digital Globe's Quickbird, which offers an incredibly close 60-70 centimetre resolution from a distance of 800 to 900 kilometers in space.
India is gradually building its space assets and is scheduled to launch a navy specific satellite which will be designed to boost that service's network-centric warfare programme. With a 1,000-nautical-mile footprint over the Indian Ocean Region the satellite is being developed in collaboration with the Defence Research and Development Organisation.