India plans to launch 30 satellites in next decade

"We expect not less than 30 satellites," Director of the Hyderabad-based National Remote Sensing Centre (NRSC), under the DoS Dr V Jayaraman said.

NRSC is responsible for remote sensing, satellite data acquisition and processing, data dissemination, aerial remote sensing and decision support for disaster management.

In a plan already drawn up for the next ten years, Indian Space Research Organisation would launch a series of Resourcesat, Cartosat, ocean and atmospheric satellites. This would include Cartosat-3 with 30 cm resolution, he said.

"We will launch Resourcesat-2 in early February or ending January. It will be a replacement satellite for Resourcesat-1 which gives us 5.8 metres, 70 km multi-spectral data for the first time," Jayaraman told PTI.

He said ISRO was setting up an integrated multi-mission ground segment in Hyderabad at an investment of Rs 35 crore to Rs 40 crore which is expected to be operational in June next.

In this single ground station (segment), ISRO would be able to receive all the satellite data "making the (space) products in such a way that every day we will supply 1000 products to the users directly."

Now, NRSC is in a position to deliver space products within four-five days of receiving the data. This new ground segment would enable it to do it within 12 hours and supply "emergency products" within one hour.

Earlier, inaugurating a state-level conference on Karnataka State Geospatial Database, organised by the Karnataka State Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Jayaraman stressed that GIS (geographic information system) and remote sensing experts need to leverage the power of cloud computing.