Article Posted on : - Apr 26, 2011

Resourcesat-2, Youthsat, X-Sat satellites.

BANGALORE (PTI): The country's latest remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 and two micro satellites launched by home grown PSLV-C16 rocket on April 20 from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh "are functioning satisfactorily", ISRO said.

"All three satellites were placed in the targeted orbits with high precision," the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement here.

In its 17th consecutive successful flight, PSLV-C16 injected Resourcesat-2, Youthsat and X-sat (of Nanyang Technical University, Singapore) into polar sun synchronous orbit on last Wednesday.

With the precise injection of Resourcesat-2, about 20 kg of fuel allocated for the probable dispersions in injection was saved which would help enhance the five year operational life of the satellite, it said.

Immediately after injection of Resourcesat 2, its two solar panels were deployed and three Imaging Cameras oriented towards Earth, it said.

Orbital trimming manoeuvre was conducted successfully on April 22 and Resourcesat-2 is now placed in the final orbital configuration in a sun-synchronous polar orbit.

Operation of the Imaging cameras is scheduled to commence on April 28, the statement said.

The first imaging pass on April 28 is expected to cover about 3000 km stretch of Indian land mass from Joshimut in Uttarakhand to Kannur in Kerala.

The statement said the health of Youthsat is normal.

Control and command operations for Resourcesat-2 and Youthsat satellites are being carried out from ISRO’s Telemetry Tracking and Command Network Centre (ISTRAC) at Bangalore, connected to a network of ground stations at Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak (Indonesia), Svalbard (North Pole) and Troll (South Pole).

The Earth Station of National Remote Sensing Centre at Shadnagar (near Hyderabad) has been geared up for Resourcesat-2 data reception on April 28.

Payload data from Youthsat is being processed at the Indian Space Science Data Centre at Bylalu, (near Bangalore).

A report by Nanyang Technological University, Singapore stated that the health of X Sat and performance of various on-board sub-systems are normal.