Article Posted on : - Sep 02, 2011

An artistic impression of Megha-Tropiques: An Alcatel /CNES photo

CHENNAI (PTI): The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Thursday said it plans to launch Megha-Tropiques – an advanced weather and climate satellite, onboard the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) later this month.

The satellite will be launched from Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters on the sidelines of a function.

“The preparations are going on,” he said adding the satellite would carry four scientific instruments, developed jointly by ISRO and French national space agency centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) to provide information on rain above the oceans and water vapour content in the atmosphere.

Megha-Tropiques is similar to Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite.

ISRO and CNES have been pursuing cooperative programmes since 1993 under which joint satellite missions like Megha-Tropiques were taken up to study the atmosphere and the oceans, Radhakrishnan said.

Besides Megha-Tropique, the PSLV rocket would also carry three nano satellites for monitoring green house gases. While one nano satellite is from Luxembourg, SRM University and IIT Kanpur have developed one each.

To a query, the ISRO chief said the Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) with indigenously-developed cryogenic engine would be launched during the second quarter of next year.

In December 2010, homegrown launch vehicle GSLV-F06 fitted with Russian cryogenic engine carrying the GSAT-5P communication satellite has failed in its mission when the rocket was hit by a snag within seconds after lift-off.