Isro to launch its third remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A on Wednesday

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) is all set to launch remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A aboard its workhorse PSLV, capping a year of successful satellite launches.

PSLV-C36, carrying remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2A will blast off from the first launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota at 10:24 am on 7 December, the space agency said today.

The 44.4-metre tall PSLV C36 is expected to place the 1,235 kg Resourcesat-2A into an 827km polar sun synchronous orbit in about 18 minutes after lift-off.

The mission life of the satellite is five years. Resourcesat-2A is a remote sensing satellite developed by Isro and succeeds Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2 launched in 2003 and 2011, respectively.

Resourcesat-2A is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users and would carry similar payloads as carried by its predecessors.

The satellite would carry a high resolution linear imaging self scanner camera, medium resolution LISS-3 camera and an advanced wide field sensor camera that operates in various bands.

It would also carry two solid state recorders with a capacity of 200GB to store the images taken by the cameras and which can be shared with ground stations.

PSLV-C36 is the thirty eighth flight of Isro's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. In this flight, Isro will be using the 'XL' version of PSLV with six solid strap-on motors.

PSLV is the Isro's versatile launch vehicle for launching multiple satellites in polar SSOs, low earth orbits (LEO) as well as geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) and sub GTO.

With 36 successful launches, PSLV has emerged as the workhorse launch vehicle of Isro and is offered for launching satellites for international customers. During 1994-2016 period, PSLV has launched a total of 121 satellites, of which 79 satellites are from abroad and 42 are Indian satellites.