ISRO Launches India's Sixth Eye In The Sky, Cartosat 2, With 30 Satellites

New Delhi: Hemmed in by neighbours with whom ties remain uneasy, India is increasingly turning vigilant, building fast on its monitoring capacity. Today Indian space agency ISRO launched another satellite - the eye-in-the-sky kind that sent images that came handy when surgical strikes were conducted across the Line of Control last September.

Cartosat 2 will orbit the earth from 500 km above, and will be capable of counting the number of army tanks parked in hostile territories, scientists say.

India already has five such satellites. So why does it need a sixth?

The existing satellites are not enough to meet even nominal requirement of high resolution data for developmental activities, ISRO chairman Dr A S Kiran Kumar told NDTV.

"We are forced to buy some of the images and data from alternate sources," he said, But even so, the total time that any region is covered is very limited. If one has to cover the entire country at least once a year, more such satellites are needed. In the coming years, the need for high resolution data will only grow, he said, particularly with the increasing monitoring activity both by states as well as the Center.

"We have already got an approval for a constellation of three satellites providing such sub-meter resolution images," he added.

The Cartosat 2 satellite will be carried up by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. It would be the 40th flight of the 44 meter tall and 320-ton rocket.

The PSLV will also carry 30 other small satellites - 29 of them will be from 15 different countries including US & Chile. The 30th will be a 15 kg satellite called NIUSAT. It has been made by Noorul Islam University in Tamil Nadu, which will help in crop monitoring and disaster management.