Indian Rocket Launches Israeli-Built Spy Satellite

India launched a closely-guarded Israeli-built radar spy satellite Monday to begin gathering valuable intelligence data from a 342-mile-high perch above the planet, regardless of lighting and weather conditions.

The country's 15th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ignited at 0115 GMT and leapt from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India's east coast.lift of 144 foot all rocket

The PSLV was carrying a secretive satellite fitted with a dish-like radar antenna designed to see through darkness, clouds and camouflage, Spaceflight Now reported Saturday.

The satellite, named RISAT 2, weighs about 660 pounds at launch and was built by Israel Aerospace Industries. It is designed for an orbit with an altitude of about 342 miles and inclined 41 degrees to the equator.

Radars transmit beams toward Earth and measure the reflected signals to create detailed images of objects on the ground.

"RISAT 2 is a radar imaging satelite all-weather capability to take images of the Earth," ISRO said in a document on its Web site. "This satellite will enhance ISRO's capability for disaster management applications."

But Indian news agencies have reported RISAT 2 will be used by the military.

RISAT 2 is similar to Israel's TECSAR satellite launched by another PSLV rocket last year. Both satellites look identical in available public imagery, have the same launch mass, and will operate in comparable orbits.

The new satellite provides an important new capability for Indian intelligence services. Previous Indian satellites, including a high-resolution observer launched last April, carried optical imaging sensors that were hampered by darkness and bad weather conditions on the ground.

India's Space Satellites

Aryabhata, the first Indian space satellite, was launched for India on April 19, 1975.

Later, Bhaskara-I, an Earth observation satellite, launched for India on June 7, 1979.

India launched its own satellite for the first time on July 18, 1980. It was the Rohini-1 satellite carried aloft on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket from the Sriharikota Island launch site.

Since then, India has invested a great deal of its space development work in complex applications satellites. The nation's two main interests are satellites for remote sensing and communications -- used for weather pictures, disaster warnings and feeds to 552 television and 164 radio stations on the ground.

Space organizations. A Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) was established in 1965 in Thumba. A Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station was erected in 1967 at Ahmedabad. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was created August 15, 1969, in the Department of Atomic Energy. Since then, ISRO has managed India's space research and the uses of space for peaceful puroposes.

The government established the Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS) in June 1972. DOS conducts the nation's space activities for ISRO at four space centres across the country. DOS reports directly to the Prime Minister. ISRO was placed under DOS on June 1, 1972, and made a government organisation on April 1, 1975.

The first experimental launch from the Sriharikota Island launch site of a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket on August 10, 1979, did not place its Rohini Technology Payload satellite in orbit. However, the next year India successfully launched the Rohini-1 satellite on July 18, 1980, on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket.

TV satellite. By the end of 1985, the Rohini-3 communications satellite launched in August 1983 had extended nationwide television coverage from 20 percent to 70 percent of the population. Today it is about 90 percent.

India's SROSS-1 satellite failed to achieve orbit when it rode the first developmental launch of an Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) rocket on March 24, 1987. The second developmental launch of an ASLV in July 1988 also failed. Later, the third and fourth attempts were successful.

In 1992, the Indian-built INSAT-2 geostationary communications and meteorological satellite superseded an American-built INSAT-1.

Geosynchronous satellites. One of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rockets was blasted off on April 18, 2001, from the Sriharikota Island launch site in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh on the east coast of the nation near the Bay of Bengal. It placed a 1.5-ton experimental communications satellite called GSAT-1 into geosynchronous orbit 22,300 miles above Earth.

GSAT-1 was a communications satellite with digital audio, data and video broadcasting using two S-band, one high power C-band and two indigenous C-band transponders.

A GSLV rocket, similar in power to an American Delta rocket, can boost a large communications or weather satellite to a stationary orbit. India also plans to use GSLV rockets to send probes away from Earth to explore the planets. Missions to Mercury, Venus and Mars are under consideration.

India would like to use the GSLV launcher to tap into the global commercial launcher market.


PSLV launches TES. India's Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) was launched on October 22, 2001, aboard a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C3) from Sriharikota to a 350-mi.-high orbit.

The 2,440-lb. satellite tested new payload technologies, ranging from communications to remote sensing. It carried a panchromatic camera for Earth-imaging.

The satellite was monitored by ISRO's Spacecraft Control Centre (SCC) Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore along with its small network of tracking stations at Lucknow, Mauritius, and Bearslake, Russia.

INSAT lofted by Ariane. The Indian National Satellite, INSAT-3C, designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) was airlifted from Bangalore, India, to Cayenne Airport near Kourou, French Guyana in December 2001 in preparation for a launch on a European Space Agency Ariane-4 rocket on January 24, 2002.

INSAT-3C added much communications capacity to the INSAT fleet in orbit, including 24 C-band transponders, six extended C-band transponders, two S-band broadcast satellite service transponders and mobile satellite service transponders. The satellite beams commercial television signals to customers in India.

INSAT-3A launched in 2003. An Ariane 5 rocket carried the Indian-built satellite INSAT-3A to space from Kourou on April 9, 2003.

Insat 3A was built by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) and carried a communications, weather imaging, and search-and-rescue payload.

The 3,000-lb. satellite measured about 9 by 6.5 by 6 ft. Its solar panels spanned about 43 ft.

India in Space Pioneers

Vikram Sarabhai. Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai founded India's space program after envisioning Indian satellites that could provide communications, meteorology, remote sensing, and direct-to-home television broadcasting.

He founded the Physical Research Laboratory, the Space Science Research Institute, the Department of Space, and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

In 1962, Sarabhai organized space research as chairman of Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR). He set up of the Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station and began manufacturing sounding rockets in India. He drew up plans to transmit education to remote villages across India with the Satellite Instructional Television Experiment (SITE).

After Sarabhai died in 1971, the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center (VSSC) in Tiruvananthapuram is named for him.






Satish Dhawan. Another early dedveloper of India's space program was Satish Dhawan. He was the longest serving director of the Indian Institute of Science when he died in 2002.

Prime Minister Indira Gandhi asked him to head the nation's space program. When the space scientist and former chairman of ISRO died, Indian President, K. R. Narayanan said, "India's space programmes owe to a great extent its spectacular growth and high level of maturity to the stewardship and visionary leadership of Prof. Dhawan."

The History of India in Space

Space technology has allowed the nation of India to move into the world of high technology, a place previously occupied only by more-developed nations.

India has been up there since July 18, 1980, when it became the eighth to demonstrate it could send a satellite to orbit above Earth. India launched the satellite Rohini 1 on an Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket from the Sriharikota Island launch site.

Indian cosmonaut Rakesh Sharma spent eight days in 1984 aboard the USSR's space station Salyut 7.

In recent years, India has concentrated much of its space development work on complex applications satellites and more powerful rockets. The nation's two main interests are satellites for remote sensing and communications -- used for weather pictures, disaster warnings and feeds to 552 television and 164 radio stations on the ground.








Here's a partial chronology:

• 1963 - The first sounding rocket was launched Nov. 21 from TERLS.
  
  
• 1965 -Space Science & Technology Centre (SSTC) was established in Thumba.
  
  
• 1967 - Satellite Telecommunication Earth Station was erected at Ahmedabad.
  
  
• 1969 - Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was created August 15 in the Department of Atomic Energy. Since then, ISRO has managed India's space research and the uses of space for peaceful puroposes.
  
  
• 1972 - The government established the Space Commission and the Department of Space (DOS) in June. DOS conducts the nation's space activities for ISRO at four space centres across the country. DOS reports directly to the Prime Minister.
  
  
• 1972 - ISRO placed under DOS on June 1.
  
  
• 1975 - ISRO made a Government Organisation on April 1.
  
  
• 1975 - Aryabhata, the first Indian space satellite, was launched for India on April 19.
  
  
• 1979 - Bhaskara-I, an experimental satellite for earth observations, launched on June 7.
  
  
• 1979 - The first experimental launch of an SLV-3 rocket on August 10 did not place its Rohini Technology Payload satellite in orbit.
  
  
• 1980 - India successfully launched its own Rohini-1 satellite on July 18 on a Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) rocket from the Sriharikota Island launch site.
  
  
• 1983 - The Rohini-3 communications satellite, launched in August, had by the end of 1985 extended nationwide television coverage from 20 percent to 70 percent of the population. Today it is about 90 percent.
  
  
• 1984 - The first Indian cosmonaut became the 138th man in space when he spent eight days aboard the USSR's space station Salyut 7. Squadron Leader Rakesh Sharma, a 35 year old Indian Air Force pilot, was launched to space along with two Soviet cosmonauts aboard Soyuz T-11 on April 2. While in space, Sharma conducted multispectral photography of the northern region of India in preparation for construction of hydroelectric power stations in the Himalayas. Sharma and his backup, Wing Commander Ravish Malhotra, had prepared in advance an elaborate series of zero-gravity Yoga exercises that Sharma carried out while aboard Salyut 7. Indian Space Research Organisation's manned space program has depended for the most part on the Soviet Union.
  
  
• 1987 - The first developmental launch of a larger Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) rocket on March 24 did not place its SROSS-1 satellite in orbit. It could lift a 300-lb. satellite to an orbit 250 miles above Earth.
  
  
• 1988 - The second developmental launch of an ASLV in July also failed. Later, the third and fourth attempts would be successful.
  
  
• 1992 - The Indian-built INSAT-2 geostationary communications and meteorological satellite superseded an American-built INSAT-1.
  
  
• 1993 - The even larger Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) debuted in September, but failed to attain orbit. Its individual elements were successful. PSLV can lift a one-ton satellite to a Sun-synchronous polar orbit.
  
  
• 2001 -- The first launch of a still larger Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket was successful on April 18. GSLV can boost a 2.5-ton satellite. In addition to placing large communications and weather satellites in high stationary orbits, India plans to use GSLV rockets to send probes away from Earth to explore the planets. Missions to Mercury, Venus and Mars are under consideration.