By Venkatachari Jagannathan
ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C36 lifted off successfully at Sriharikota on Wednesday morning carrying the earth observation satellite Resourcesat-2A.
The PSLV-XL variant rocket standing 44.4m tall and weighing 321 ton tore into the morning skies at around 10.25am.
The rocket was ferrying Resourcesat-2A, weighing 1,235kg.
The PSLV rocket is a four-stage rocket powered by solid and liquid fuel alternatively.
According to ISRO, Resourcesat-2A is a follow-on mission to Resourcesat-1 and Resourcesat-2, launched in 2003 and 2011 respectively.
The new satellite Resourcesat-2A is intended to continue the remote sensing data services to global users provided by it two predecessors.
The Resourcesat-2A carries three payloads similar to those of the earlier two Resourcesat's. The first payload is a high resolution Linear Imaging Self Scanner (LISS-4) camera operating in three spectral bands in the Visible and Near Infrared Region (VNIR) with 5.8 m spatial resolution and steerable up to ± 26 degree across track to achieve a five day-revisit capability.
The second payload is the medium resolution LISS-3 camera operating in three-spectral bands in VNIR and one in Short Wave Infrared (SWIR) band with 23.5m spatial resolution.
The third payload is a coarse resolution Advanced Wide Field Sensor (AWiFS) camera operating in three spectral bands in VNIR and one band in SWIR with 56m spatial resolution.
The satellite also carries two Solid State Recorders with a capacity of 200 Gigabits each to store the images taken by its cameras which can be read out later to ground stations.
The mission life of Resourcesat-2A is five years.