Risat-1 will help India monitor borders

New Delhi: India proposes to launch Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) with cloud penetrating capability for imaging various parts of the country, including border areas, the Lok Sabha was informed Wednesday. Replying to a question, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V. Narayanasamy said that Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is also planning to launch a geo-imaging satellite (Gisat) to provide near real time pictures of large areas of the country. “The Risat will provide the pictures of the areas of interest on near real time basis. That is, selected sector-wise imaging every five minutes and entire Indian landmass every 30 minutes at 50 metre spatial resolution,” he said. With 5.47 a.m. Thursday set for the blast-off of Risat-1 into space, the Indian space agency is fuelling the rocket’s second stage with liquid propellant. [caption id=“attachment_288675” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=" India proposes to launch Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) with cloud penetrating capability for imaging various parts of the country, including border areas. Reuters"]  [/caption] “The major activity today (Wednesday) is the filling up of the liquid fuel in the rocket’s second stage. The countdown is progressing well and every system in the rocket is normal,” a source in the ISRO told IANS in Chennai. The indigenous Risat-1 with a life span of five years would be used for disaster prediction and agriculture forestry, and the high resolution pictures and microwave imaging could also be used for defence purposes. The rocket is ready to escape the Earth’s gravity to put India’s heaviest microwave satellite, Risat-1, weighing 1,858 kg at an altitude of 480 km at an inclination of 97.552 degree, ISRO sources said. IANS