spacetoday.net: India launches remote sensing, education satellites

Posted: Mon, Apr 20, 2009, 1:52 PM ET (1752 GMT)
PSLV launch of RISAT-2 (ISRO)

An Indian rocket placed into orbit on Monday a radar imaging satellite widely considered to be a military reconnaissance satellite as well as a small secondary payload. The PSLV rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 9:15 pm EDT Sunday (0115 GMT, 6:45 am local time Monday) and placed into orbit the RISAT-2 and ANUSAT satellites. RISAT-2 is described as a 300-kilogram radar imaging satellite that will be used by the Indian space agency ISRO to perform remote sensing for disaster management and other Earth sciences applications. The spacecraft has been widely reported in the Indian media to be primarily a military reconnaissance satellite built in part or in entirety by Israel, a claim denied by ISRO officials. Also launched on the PSLV was ANUSAT, a 40-kilogram microsatellite built by students at Anna University in Chennai.