By IANS
Sriharikota/Bangalore : India’s space agency ISRO Monday successfully placed an Israeli “spy satellite” in the polar orbit after a textbook launch, a top official said.
“The 300-kg Israeli satellite (Tecsar) was launched as scheduled at 09:15 IST (Indian Standard Time) using the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C10) and placed in orbit within 20 minutes after a perfect lift-off from the first launch-pad at the Satish Dhawan space centre,” a spokesman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 100 km from Chennai.
“The spy satellite was placed into its intended orbit with a perigee (nearest point to earth) of 450 km and apogee (farthest point to earth) of 580 km with an orbital inclination of 41 degree towards the equator,” he said.
“It was a perfect launch in fine weather,” the official added.
The satellite was placed in orbit at about 1,180 seconds after lift off.
Tescar, also referred to as Polaris, is a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology satellite. The design, development and fabrication activities of the satellite were carried by MBT Space, a division of Israeli Aerospace Industries (IAI), with the participation of other hi-tech industries such as ELTA, Tadiran Spectralink and Rafel.
“The commercial satellite is equipped with a SAR payload and has capability to see through clouds and carry out day-and-night all-weather imaging,” the official said.
The additional strap-on engines or booster motors to take up more than 600 kg payloads of satellites were not used. Only the main PSLV vehicle was used for the Polaris launch. In technical terms, the PSLV was in the “core alone” configuration.
This was only the second time ISRO had tried such a configuration – after launching the Italian Agile satellite April 2007 with PSLV C-8.
The core-alone PSLV weighs 230 tonnes, and can put satellites up to 600 kg into orbit.
The launch of the Israeli satellite, which was kept under wraps by the Indian space agency, was a commercial contract between IAI and Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of ISRO, headquartered in Bangalore.
Amid opposition from many countries in the Gulf and from Pakistan, the launch was scheduled in September 2007 but had been put off to October. It was then rescheduled for January 2008.
A space official at the launch site said: “The beginning of 2008 has been good for ISRO with its first successful launch in January.”
The agency is gearing up to launch the moon probe, Chandrayan 1, in April 2008.