In a pre-dawn launch on May 22, Indian space agency ISRO successfully launched Earth observation satellite RISAT-2B, which will enhance the country’s surveillance capabilities, among others. RISAT-2B can take high-resolution images of the Earth during day and night, and also under cloudy conditions.

As the 25-hour countdown concluded, the agency’s trusted workhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C46), blasted off at 5.30 am from the first launch pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on its 48th mission, carrying the 615 kg satellite.

What is the the purpose of RISAT-2B?

The RISAT-2B (Radar Imaging Satellite-2B) is meant for application in fields such as surveillance, agriculture, forestry and disaster management support.

ISRO chairman K. Sivan said the RISAT-2B, with a mission life of five years, is an advanced Earth observation satellite.

“In this satellite, another very complex new technology has flown. That is a 3.6 metre unfurlable radial rib antenna. This is also going to be the technology of the future,” he said.

Its X-band synthetic aperture radar can give added details such as size of objects on Earth, structures, movement and change. The information will complement data from the normal optical remote sensing satellites. Such data are useful for agencies that need ground imageries during cloud, rain and in the dark.

This is the third Indian RISAT in 10 years, coming up after the Israeli-built RISAT-2 in 2009 and later ISRO-built RISAT-1 in 2012. RISAT-2B would replace the RISAT-2, which has been actively used by India to monitor activities in camps across the border in Pakistan to thwart infiltration bids by terrorists. ISRO had launched RISAT-1, a microwave remote sensing satellite, on April 26, 2012 from Sriharikota.

Sivan said that the PSLV-C46 successfully injected RISAT-2B precisely in the designated orbit of 555 km, with an inclination of 37 degrees. “This particular mission for PSLV is a very, very important mission. With this launch, PSLV lofts 50 tonnes to space by launching 354 satellites, including national, student and foreign satellites,” Sivan said.

Sivan said the PSLV-C46 carried two important piggyback payloads, an indigenously developed processor and a low cost Inertial Navigation System. “It is going to revolutionise our future launch vehicle missions,” he said.

The PSLV-C46 was the 14th flight of the PSLV in its core-alone configuration sans the use of the solid strap-on motors. It was the 72nd launch vehicle mission from Sriharikota and also marked the 36th launch from the first launch pad. This also marked the third launch of PSLV in 2019.

The other two were the PSLV-C45/EMISAT mission, which successfully injected the EMISAT and 29 international customer satellites into their orbits on April 1, and the PSLV-C44, which successfully placed the Microsat-R and the Kalamsat-V2 satellites in designated orbits on January 24.

What are ISRO’s future missions?

ISRO is gearing up for its second moon mission - Chandrayaan-2. Sivan said, “The next mission is going to be a landmark one for India. It is going to be the most complex mission ever undertaken by ISRO. It is going to take place between July 9 and July 16.”

The landing on the moon is expected to be on September 6. “It is going to land at a particular location where nobody has gone before,” he said.

After Chandrayaan-2, ISRO would look at launching the very high-resolution CARTOSAT 3 satellite.