The Hindu Business Line : First mapping satellite to be launched in May

CARTOSAT-1, the country's first cartography (mapping) satellite, is ready to be launched from the SHAR Centre in Sriharikota, during the first week of May by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

To be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), the satellite also called IRS P5, will place India among the front-runners in the world to have an exclusive satellite capability in cartography.

The satellite is ready for shipment to SHAR. It will provide 2.5 metre resolution pictures, mapping the length and breadth of the country and overseas, explained, Dr P.S. Goel, Director, ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore.

The Cartosat-1 pictures, in combination with the IRS P6 (Resourcesat) imagery, taken in multi-spectral band, would offer the best possible satellite imagery and remote-sensed data products in the global market, he told Business Line here.

The remote sensed data products from the series of Indian remote sensing satellites (IRS), with earth stations at several global locations and tie-ups with global partners, are today among the most sought after in the satellite data products market.

The second of the mapping satellites-Cartosat II is expected to be placed in orbit by the PSLV during October 2005. The other major launches during the current financial year would be the Insat 4A by August and the Insat 4B about six months from August. Dr Goel was in the city to deliver the Aerospace Luminary Series Lecture, organised by the Aeronautical Society of India (Hyderabad Branch) on Saturday. Among the future projects of ISRO, the Moon mission or Chandrayan-I is progressing and Astrosat, the dedicated science mission is targeted to be ready by 2007. The first satellite will look at the stars and study them.

Major research centres such as Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai, Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA), Bangalore, the Physical Research Laboratory (PRL), Ahmedabad along with the ISRO are involved in designing the payload, Dr Goel said.

The President of the ASI Hyderabad Branch and Director, Research Centre Imarat (RCI), Dr V.K. Saraswat, said there was convergence in the aerospace area with technologies from the defence, space sciences, new materials that would impact the lives of common people significantly.

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