BANGALORE: The Launch Authorisation Board of RISAT-1 —India’s first satellite with indigenously developed synthetic aperture radar having all weather and day-night imaging capability — has cleared the launch of the mission at 5.47 am (IST) on April 26.
The 71-hour countdown commenced at 6.47 am on Tuesday. During the countdown, propellant-filling operations of the liquid propellant second stage (PS2) and the fourth stage (PS4) of the launch vehicle will be carried out. Besides, mandatory checks on the launch vehicle and spacecraft will be conducted. Readiness of various ground systems such as tracking radar systems and communication networks will be checked and batteries charged. Pressurisation of propellant tanks on board the satellite will be performed.
The PSLV-C19 will inject the satellite into an orbit of 480 km altitude at an inclination of 97.552 degree. The satellite will be put in its final orbital configuration at 536-km altitude using thrusters on board the spacecraft.
Weighing 1858 kg, RISAT-1 will be the heaviest satellite ever launched by the PSLV. Its orbit period is 95.49 minutes. It will complete 14 orbits every day.
The active microwave remote sensing power of the C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR) of RISAT 1 provides for day-night and cloud penetration imaging capabilities.
RISAT-1 will have applications in agriculture and in management of natural disasters like floods and cyclone. It can also be used for defence purposes.
The fabrication and launch of RISAT-1 was postponed by ISRO in the aftermath of the 2008 Mumbai attacks in order to prioritise the launch of RISAT-2 with X-band synthetic aperture radar of Israeli origin for surveillance from the sky.