Country's First Student-Made Satellite Will Piggyback Into Orbit

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced Friday the planned launch of RISAT-2 next month, a new remote-sensing satellite to be placed in sun-synchronous orbit. Accompanying RISAT-2 will be Anusat, India's first student-made satellite.

All Headline News reports the launch is scheduled from Sriharikota on either April 5 or 6, using ISRO's four-stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

RISAT-2 was developed as an all-weather reconnaissance satellite. A significant contribution to the project by Israel is its Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), which is the heart of the 1,780 kilogram (almost 4,000 pound) remote-sensing satellite.

India facilitated the launch of Israel's TecSAR last year, which was also equipped with SAR, providing reconnaissance capabilities with a resolution of about 10 centimeters. ISRO spokesman S. Satish denied reports that RISAT-2 will be used for spying purposes, telling CNN, "As far as ISRO is concerned, this (spying) is not one of the applications."

Sharing the ride into orbit will be Anusat, a micro-satellite developed and constructed by 37 aerospace engineering students and 10 of their instructors at the Madras Institute of Technology. Anusat will then separate from RISAT-2 and establish itself in its own designated orbit.

Madras Institute of Technology spokesman R Dhanraj told Times of India that Anusat will operate in a low earth orbit at an altitude between 600 and 800 km (about 370 to 500 miles). Equipped with a "store and forward" payload, data will be received at both Chennai Tech University and Pune University, providing students with hands-on experience in space sciences and technology, he said.

"This is the first time we are launching a satellite made by students, and the idea is to motivate the younger generation to work for India's space missions," Satish said.

FMI: www.isro.org