India will launch Cartosat-1 next month, the first of its kind with stereoscopic imaging capability, and INSAT-4A by the first week of August, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G Madhavan Nair said Tuesday.
“INSAT-4A, India’s heaviest communication satellite, will be launched from an Ariane-5 launch vehicle in French Guayana, at the end of July or early August,” he told reporters.
“In the first week of May, Cartosat-1 will be launched from a PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) at Sriharikota. It is the first satellite of its kind with stereoscopic capabilities and a resolution of 2.5 metres,” he added.
“The satellite would enable updates of survey maps, which were prepared in 1980-85, within a year,” Nair said.
By the end of the year, ISRO will also launch Cartosat-2 (with one metre resolution and swath of 30km) and HAMSAT, for amateur radio, as a piggyback rider, on an PSLV, he said adding another communication satellite would be launched on a GSLV (Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
On the Chandrayan project, the ISRO chief said the design of the spacecraft was now complete and an indigenous tracking network was being developed.
