Risat-1 to boost India's recce capabilities ISRO Gears up for its first launch of 2012

The launch of PSLV carrying RISAT 2 in 2009

Risat-1 to boost country's recce capabilities

ISRO Gears up for its first launch of 2012


The Radar Imaging Satellite-1 (RISAT-1), second in the series of India's radar imaging reconnaissance satellites, will be Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro's) first launch next year.
RISAT-1, which will have the capability of imaging during day and night and in all-weather conditions including fog and haze, will be launched in January 2012 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, sources in the space agency told DNA.
The satellite, which will be launched aboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-19 (PSLVC-19), will carry a C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) and can be used for observational purposes for national security and environmental applications.
According to Isro, SAR is an active radar sensor, operating in the microwave region of electromagnetic spectrum that provides target parameters such as dielectric constant, surface roughness, geometry.
The SAR payload is based on an active phased array technology using Transmit/Receive (TR) modules, which would provide necessary electronic agility for achieving the multi-mode capability, providing spatial resolutions of 1 m to 50 m, and a swath of 10 to 240 km caters to different applications.
Isro scientists said RISAT-1 will follow RISAT-2 in the sequence of the country's radar imaging reconnaissance satellites. Although ISRO has denied that the RISAT-2 (launched in April 2009) falls under the spy satellite category, it is rumoured that the satellite is being used for surveillance on areas on the western borders of India.
The pre-launch activities of RISAT-2 in 2009 had aroused a lot of curiosity with media reports stating that it was accelerated following the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, with the help of the Israeli Aerospace Industries.
Apart from the RISAT satellites, Indian defence forces under the Integrated Space Command have been contemplating having dedicated satellites for quite some time now.
IAF chief NAK Browne, during his recent visit to Bangalore, had given top priority to having such dedicated satellites for all the three services under the Indian defence.