ISRO to launch SPY Satellite, 9 Foreign customer satellite

• ISRO is gearing up to launch the nationals latest satellite RISAT-2BR1 & nine foreign satellites from the Satish Dhawan space center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on Dec 11.

ABOUT

• The other nine foreign satellite are USA's multi-mission lemur-4 satellites, technology demonstration Tyvak-0129, earth imaging 1HOPSAT, Israel's remote sensing duchifat-3,
• Italy's search and rescue tyvak-0092 and Japan's QPSSAR-a radar imaging earth observation satellite.
• These all 10 satellite will be sent to space through the polar satellite launch vehicle rocket (PSLV-C48).

About RISAT-2BR1

• It is a radar imaging earth observation satellite.
• It has a synthetic aperture radar to provide all-weather surveillance.
• It will enhance India's defense capabilities to monitor cross border activities.
• RISAT-2BRI, short for "Radar imaging Satellite-2B" is the 2nd in a series of satellites used to observe weather conditions on earth using radar imagery.
• It is equipped with an active sensor, the synthetic aperture radar (SAR), can sense or 'Observe' earth in a special way from space day and night, rain or cloud.

About PSLV

• PSLV is a 3rd generation launch vehicle indigenously designed and developed by ISRO.
• It is one of the world's most reliable and versatile workhorse (Launch Vehicles) with 39 consecutively successful missions by JUN 2017.
• It is a four-stage launch vehicle and first Indian rocket to be equipped with liquid stages.
• It can take up to 1,750kg of payload to sun-synchronous Polar orbits (SSPO) of 600km altitude & the payload of 1425kg to geosynchronous and Geostationary orbits.

Four Stages

• The uppermost stage or Fourth stage of PSLV comprises of two earth storable liquid engines.
• The third stage is a solid rocket motor that provides upper stage High thrust after the atmospheric phase of launch.
• The second stage of PSLV uses an earth storage storable liquid rocket engine, known as the Vikas engine developed by a liquid propulsion system center.
• The first stage uses the S139 solid rocket motor that is augmented by 6 solid strap-on booster.