ISRO to launch another series of Cartosat-2 in PSLV-C38 this month; key things to know

After the successful launch of heaviest rocket in this week, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is now set to launch an another earth observation satellite belonging to Cartosat-2 Series Satellite by a new PSLV-C38.

The Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with co-passenger satellites from abroad is planned to be launched by PSLV-C38 into a nominal altitude of 500 km.

ISRO has scheduled to carry this launch by end of June 2017 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre located in Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh.

Cartosat-2 Series has the capability of along-track and across-track steering, up to 26 degree nominally. 

For this project, ISRO has allotted a total of Rs 160 crore. The satellite will have a single panchromatic camera along with Multi-spectral cameras which can detect scene specific images.

Co-passenger satellites includes nano satellites one each from various countries. 

Using the Panchromatic camera, the satellite will have a high-resolution, multi-spectral instrument, which will support it in adapting high-resolution land observation and cartography.

Cartosat-2 Series  whose PAN camera covers 50% of the payload area can steer up to 45 degrees on-track as well as across and will cover the entire earth in 1867 orbits on a 126-day cycle.

Not only capturing images, the satellite also has the ability to record videos from the sky. It will help in scanning wide range of activities involving military and civil planning.

The imageries from Cartosat-2 series satellite will useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, utility management like road network monitoring, water distribution, creation of land use maps, change detection to bring out geographical and manmade features and various other Land Information System (LIS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) applications.

The first series of Cartosat-1 was launched in May 05, 2005 using a PSLV-C6 vehicle and the second series on January 10, 2007. 

In the month of February 2017, ISRO created a world record by launching a Cartosat - 2 series satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites from PSLV - C37. 

On June 06, 2017, ISRO  launched Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III – D1 (GSLV-Mk III - D1) along with GSAT-19.

GSLV-Mk III and  GSAT-19 would be the heaviest satellite being launched in India till date.