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India waits for the launch of CARTOSAT-1 tomorrow

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, May 2 -- The countdown for the launch of India's new and heaviest remote sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-1 and a piggy back microsatellite, HAMSAT, would start at 5.49 a.m. tomorrow. The 1560-kg CARTOSAT-1 along with 42.5 kg HAMSAT would be launched by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C6) from the newly set up state-of-the-art second launching pad at Indian Space Research Organization's Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh in southern India, at 10.19 a.m, on May 5.

India's 11th remote sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-1, a 2.5 billion rupee project of ISRO, will be used for cartographic applications and the data from CARTOSAT-1 is expected to provide enhanced inputs for stimulating newer applications in the urban and rural
developments, land and water resources management, environment impact assessment and various other geographical information system applications.

The HAMSAT is expected to meet the long felt need of the Amateur Radio Operators in the South Asian region who possess the required equipment and operators in the UHF/VHF band based satellite radio communication.

This is the first time ISRO will do the launch of "the Indian satellites" in one mission.

The new Second Launch Pad at the SDSC has been constructed at a cost of 4 billion rupees. It has been built to accommodate all the vehicles of ISRO, including the advanced launch vehicle to be built in the next decade and beyond and it is expected to increase the annual satellite launch frequency.

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::IRNA No.034 02/05/2005 15:56 --End