India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), is all set to launch GSLV-F10, the new defence satellite on March 28. This satellite will enable more advanced monitoring of the national borders and speedy monitoring of natural disasters. The GSLV-F10 satellite is to be launched into space by GISAT-1 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Weighing about 2268 kg, GISAT-1 is the first state-of-the-art agile Earth observation satellite which will be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by GSLV-F10. Subsequently, the satellite will reach the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system.
“We are sending this Geo Imaging satellite to monitor the weather on March 28,” an official working at the ISRO headquarters in Bangalore told the press. “The rocket will place the spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit. It is about 36,000 km above the Earth’s equator and is positioned in geostationary orbit using its internal propulsion system. The launch of the GISAT-1 GSLV-F10 rocket was originally scheduled for March 5 last year. But was postponed a day before launch due to technical reasons,” he added.
Experts have said that placing a sophisticated satellite in the Earth’s geographical orbit has key advantages. “This will be of great importance to India in a lot of ways,” an aerospace official said. “With internal high-resolution cameras, the satellite will allow the country to constantly monitor the Indian terrain and oceans, especially India’s borders,” he said.
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