India is on the threshhold of joining a select band of advanced countries by putting into orbit a dedicated military satellite. The military-specific reconnaissance satellite CARTOSAT-2A will be launched on a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) by the end of this year, ISRO officials said.
The satellite will give India the capability to keep tabs on missile launches in its neighbourhood.
CARTOSAT-2A was earlier programmed to be put into space by the first week of August, but its launch has now been scheduled for mid-September or early October, officials said.
POLARIS
Along with the country's own military satellite, ISRO is also planning to launch an Israeli reconnaissance satellite called POLARIS.
The Israeli satellite will ride piggyback on the 1,100-kg CARTOSAT-2A, and will be the third foreign satellite to be launched by ISRO, sources said. CARTOSAT-2A will boast of spatial resolution and will be loaded with cameras that can supply advance imagery.
It will cater full time to military and intelligence specifications, unlike existing Indian satellite.
The launch of the nation's first military satellite will be rapidly followed by launch of two more advanced imaging satellites by next year to give India a means to keep a close eye round-the-clock on the neighbouring region.
The first Radar Imaging Satellite (FRISAT) carrying a C-BAND synthetic aperture radar will have a spatial resolution of three metres to 50 metres and a swath of 10 km to 240 km.
The second reconnaissance satellite to be launched by ISRO will be the OCEANSAT-2, with 8-band multi-spectral cameras, giving the spy vehicle the air a capability to keep a watch on a wide expanse of up to 1,420 km of the ocean to monitor the movement of naval surface warships and submarines. Though ISRO sources were tightlipped, it is learnt that the Israeli military satellite POLARIS and CARTOSAT-2A can take pictures of the earth through cloud and rain, which no other Indian satellite has been able to do so far.