ISRO scientists readying for Jan 10 multi-mission

BANGALORE: Space scientists are readying for what many see as a pathbreaking event -- the January 10 launch by India of four satellites, including a recoverable spacecraft, on a home-grown rocket.

Officials of Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation are talking of a 9.30 am blast-off on that day from the spaceport at Sriharikota.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C7) will carry into space India's Cartosat-2, a 680-kg mapping satellite, and the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE, 550 kg), Indonesia's Lapan-Tubsat satellite (56 kg) and Pehuensat of Argentina (six kg).

This is the first time India will launch four satellites together, including the recoverable SRE that is intended to demonstrate the capability to recover an orbiting space capsule and associated technologies.

"SRE is intended to test a reusable thermal protection system, systems for navigation, guidance and control, hypersonic aero-dynamics, management of communication blackout, deceleration and floatation system and recovery experiments," an ISRO official said.

Cartosat-2, an advanced remote sensing satellite, will carry a single panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery for cartographic and a host of other applications.

ISRO officials said the panchromatic camera is designed to provide better than one metre spatial resolution imagery with a swath of around 10 km. This means the camera will be capable of spotting objects on the ground that measure about one metre. The satellite will also have high agility with the capability of steering along and across the track up to plus-45 degrees.