Amid Indo-Pak tensions and the Operation Sindoor to destroy
terror camps in Pakistan, the surveillance in border areas of India is all set to get a
major boost, as ISRO is readying for launching of an earth observation satellite
RISAT-1B/EOS-O9 on May 18 morning.
EOS-09 (RISAT-1B) will provide high-resolution radar imagery, especially of India’s
border regions.
The Satellite will be launched using ISRO’s workhorse launch vehicle PSLV-C61
from the spaceport of Sriharikota at 5.59 hrs on May 18.
This would be ISRO’s 101st launch mission which will take place from the First
Launch Pad.
In a post on X on Thursday evening, ISRO wrote “Watch this timelapse of
PSLV-C61 / EOS-09 — marking ISRO’s 101st launch — as PSLV is moved
from the Payload Integration Facility (PIF) to the Mobile Service Tower (MST)
at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota for further integration.”
“A step closer to launch on 18 May at 5:59 IST!”, it said.
The PSLV will injected the EOS-09 (RISAT-1B), an all weather radar imaging
satellite into a Polar Sun Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of about 529 km
It’s not a “spy satellite” and EOS-09 will provide high resolution radar imagery,
especially of India’s border regions”, sources said.
RISAT-1B is part of the series of radar imaging satellites of ISRO using
an active C-band SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar),
providing all-weather as well as the day-and-night SAR observation capability in
applications such as agriculture, forestry, soil moisture, geology, sea ice, coastal
monitoring, object identification, and flood monitoring, in addition to military
surveillance.
The RISAT-1 series is developed, manufactured and integrated by ISRO.
The 3-axis stabilized spacecraft bus consists of a hexagonal prism shape build
around a central cylinder.
Most of the spacecraft subsystems and the payload are integrated in the prism
structure and the central cylinder. The solar panels and some subsystems are
mounted on the cube-shaped section of the spacecraft.
SAR can be used for Earth observation irrespective of the light and weather
conditions of the area being imaged.
It complements/supplements data from Resourcesat, Cartosat and RISAT-2B
Series.
The satellite carries a C-band SAR and has a lift off mass of 1,710 kg .The
