<p>The Indian space agency, which scored a century in space missions Sunday, has set a 12-12-12 launch date to send an Indo-French satellite into space to study ocean parameters.<br /><br />The satellite, named "SARAL", would zoom into space on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C20 from the Sriharikota spaceport on Dec 12 this year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said here Wednesday. <br />Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh is about 370 km from Bangalore.<br /><br />"As somebody said it's 12-12-12 (launch date)," he said at the Bangalore Space Expo 2012 <br />that began here Wednesday.<br /><br />According to CNES, the French National Space Agency, SARAL stands for Satellite with ARgos and ALtika or "simple" in Hindi.</p>.<p>ARGOS system is dedicated to localisation, acquisition and distribution of environmental data while AltiKa is an innovating Ka-band altimeter system, dedicated to accurate measurement of ocean surface topography, CNES says.</p>.<p>On ISRO's future plans, Radhakrishnan said the agency would like to focus on cutting edge research while Indian industry could build the launch vehicles.<br /><br />"Operational launch vehicles like the PSLV and in future the GSLV could be built by the Indian industry," he said.<br /><br />This "consortium approach" would be beneficial to all as ISRO could focus on "high-end research and development activity," he said.</p>
<p>The Indian space agency, which scored a century in space missions Sunday, has set a 12-12-12 launch date to send an Indo-French satellite into space to study ocean parameters.<br /><br />The satellite, named "SARAL", would zoom into space on board Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C20 from the Sriharikota spaceport on Dec 12 this year, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan said here Wednesday. <br />Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh is about 370 km from Bangalore.<br /><br />"As somebody said it's 12-12-12 (launch date)," he said at the Bangalore Space Expo 2012 <br />that began here Wednesday.<br /><br />According to CNES, the French National Space Agency, SARAL stands for Satellite with ARgos and ALtika or "simple" in Hindi.</p>.<p>ARGOS system is dedicated to localisation, acquisition and distribution of environmental data while AltiKa is an innovating Ka-band altimeter system, dedicated to accurate measurement of ocean surface topography, CNES says.</p>.<p>On ISRO's future plans, Radhakrishnan said the agency would like to focus on cutting edge research while Indian industry could build the launch vehicles.<br /><br />"Operational launch vehicles like the PSLV and in future the GSLV could be built by the Indian industry," he said.<br /><br />This "consortium approach" would be beneficial to all as ISRO could focus on "high-end research and development activity," he said.</p>