India puts another 'eye in the sky'

India on Friday successfully put into orbit a satellite that will give a boost to its military surveillance capabilities along with 30 other tiny satellites --all but one of them foreign--from a single rocket in yet another milestone for its low-cost space programme.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle of the Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO) in its 40th flight (PSLV-C38) lifted off majestically from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here at 9.29 am and injected the 31 satellites into orbit about 27 minutes after lift off, amid applause from scientists.

Dubbed as a 'smart eye in the sky', the 712-kg Cartosat-2 series earth observation spacecraft launched by the 44.4-metre tall rocket as its primary payload is an advanced remote sensing satellite that is expected to give defence surveillance a leg up. The 31 satellites together weighed 955 kg.

Friday's's mission was the second highest number of satellites to be launched by the ISRO using a single rocket.

On February 15 this year, the PSLV-C37 mission launched 104 satellites into orbit at one go, scripting history. Of this, 101 satellites were from foreign countries.

With the launch of the third spacecraft in the Cartosat-2 series, the images sent by the dedicated satellite for defence forces is expected to become sharper and wider.

The previous satellite in the series had a resolution of 0.8 metres and the images it took over India's neighbourhood had helped New Delhi carry out surgical strikes on seven terror launch pads across the Line of Control last year, according to ISRO sources.

The latest remote sensing satellite has a resolution of 0.6 metres, which means it can spot even smaller objects.

"It can recognise objects within that square (0.6 m by 0.6 m)", an ISRO official said on condition of anonymity.

"Defence surveillance will get a leg-up. It can be used in identifying terrorist camps and bunkers... some formations," the official said.

Once this satellite becomes operational, it would be "handed over" to the defence forces, which have their own "set up," including ground-stations and trained manpower to access data, the official said.

The ISRO said after a flight of 16 minutes the Cartosat-2 series satellite achieved a polar Sun Synchronous Orbit of 505 km inclined at an angle of 97.44 degree to the equator very close to the intended orbit.

Later, all the other 30 satellites successfully separated from the PSLV in a predetermined sequence.

After separation of the satellite, the two solar arrays of Cartosat-2 series satellite were deployed automatically and ISRO's Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bengaluru took over the control of the satellite, an ISRO release said.