ISRO likely to launch seven satellites during current year: Govt

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is likely to launch seven satellites during the current year and the expenditure towards the realisation of satellites is nearly Rs 490 crore, the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

"ISRO has successfully launched the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-4 onboard PSLV-C52 on February 14, 2022 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, along with INS-2TD & INSPIRESat-1 as co-passengers. The satellites were injected into the polar sun synchronous orbit at 524.84 kms altitude," Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

"Currently, the satellites are undergoing various in-orbit tests and calibrations and subsequently, the data available from the satellites will be used for achieving the mission objectives, during the designated mission life. The total time taken to realise the satellite is 63 months from date of financial sanction and the expenditure towards realization of satellite is nearly Rs 490 crore," he added.

The EOS-4 is a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging satellite for earth observation, operating in C-band at 5.4 GHz frequency, for applications in the domains of agriculture, disaster management, water resources and forestry.

INS-2TD is the first satellite of the 2nd generation nanosatellites intended to demonstrate indigenously-developed nano systems for in-orbit performance.

INSPIRESat-1 is a student satellite of the class 9U, jointly developed by Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), Thiruvananthapuram, and Laboratory of Space Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, the US, to study the Ionosphere dynamics and sun's coronal heating processes, the Minister said. - IANS