Isro's launches Oceansat-2

Aiming to provide weather forecasts and details on climate change through oceanography studies, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) today successfully launched its Oceansat-2 satellite into orbit from its spaceport here.

Terming the launch excellent and precise, Madhavan Nair, chairman, Isro told reporters the mission, PSLV C-14, is the 15th successive successful mission of the indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The 970-kg spacecraft was set off around noon. The vehicle injected six nano satellites of various academic institutions from Germany, Turkey and Switzerland into orbit, along with Oceansat-2. The total cost of the project was Rs 235 crore.

Oceansat-2 contains three payloads. An Ocean Colour Monitor detects plant life in oceans and scans fishing zones, a scatterometer will measure sea surface winds for weather forecasts and cyclone studies. Both instruments will provide the reports to international scientists, too.

And, a Radio Occultation Sounder for Atmospheric Studies (Rosa), built by the Italian Space Agency, will get temperature recordings of the oceans.

Nair was confident that the new satellite will help the fishing community. “Oceansat-2 will help in saving Rs 1-6 lakh of fuel cost for the fishing community. Every six hours, the scatterometer will update wind information and OCM will update every two days.”

Oceansat-1 had a targeted life of five years and its actual life was double this. “We target a five-year lifespan for Oceansat 2, too,” he added.

On the premature call-off of Chandrayaan-1, the moon probe, Nair said the mission was successful if one takes into account the information sent by the mineral meteorological mapper on board. Chandrayaan-1 had covered 97 percentage of the lunar surface, according to him. “We will inform the findings by the end of the week.”

There will be two more launches by Isro later this year. The PSLV C-15 mission will launch Cartosat-2, a 450-kg satellite into orbit and a new geo-stationary satellite will be developed. A new launch vehicle from Isro’s labs is intended to launch heavy satellites into orbit.