ISRO to launch Cartosat-2B in March

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.

Cartosat-2A

According to Radhakrishnan, all development work on the Cartosat-2B satellite was complete. Though it will perform functions related to remote sensing of rural and urban areas of the country, the satellite is also likely to be used for military purposes.

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.