India is having its own surveillance satellites , military satellite GSAT-7 or " Rukmini" was launched on 2013 and even RISAT 1 and RISAT 2.
“RISAT-1 is no longer operational. It was decommissioned last year,” ISRO Chairman K. Sivan told
The Hindu. Launched on April 26, 2012, the satellite was equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar for earth observation and had a design life of five years.
In 2016, U.S. space agency NASA had reported a ‘debris generating’ event near RISAT-1. In 2017, the satellite was decommissioned and declared non-operational in the annual report of the Department of Space. RISAT- 2, another satellite in the series launched in 2009, remains in orbit but is reserved for strategic applications.
Radar imaging satellites ISRO’s RISAT are particularly useful for monitoring floods and assessing damage because they are capable of penetrating cloud cover and operating day and night and in all weather conditions.
“Notwithstanding the absence of our own radar satellite, ISRO is equipped with microwave data acquired under various international charters”, said P.G.Diwakar, former Scientific Secretary to the Chairman, ISRO. “Most of the data is published on the Bhuvan website and can be accessed by the Government and other institutions for post-flood analysis.” Researchers stress the need for ISRO to focus on the development of a successor to RISAT-1. The increasing frequency of climate-change induced events in the country warrants a dedicated indigenous satellite resource, they contend.
Researchers in
Kerala are turning to foreign space agencies to source satellite radar imagery for post-flood analysis and damage assessment as the decommissioning of ISRO’s RISAT-1 last year has left India without an indigenous radar imaging satellite for civilian applications. While the University of Kerala has tied up with the Michigan Technological University to map the areas that were flooded last month following torrential rains in the State, the Kerala Agricultural University has partnered with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to assess the crop damage.
The other research teams are sourcing radar images from the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency to prepare inundation maps.
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Radar imaging satellites like ESA’s Sentinel-1A was launched on 3 April 2014 by a
Soyuz rocket at 21:02:31 GMT (23:02:31 CEST).where as
Sentinel-1B radar imaging satellite launched by a
Soyuz rocket on 25 April 2016.
Sentinel-1C and 1D are in development with launch dates to be determined.
Applications Land and sea monitoring, natural disasters mapping, sea ice observations, ships detection
Soyuz itself has been flying since the mid-1960s. A development of the earlier Voskhod rocket, it is derived from R-7 missile, the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), which first flew in 1957. Soyuz-2, a modernized version of the rocket incorporating digital flight control systems and upgraded engines, was introduced with a suborbital test flight in 2004. The first orbital Soyuz-2 launches were made in 2006.
Soyuz is a three-stage rocket, with the first stage – consisting of four liquid-fuelled strap-on boosters and a core second stage, all of which are ground-lit and burn in parallel up to first stage separation, and a Blok-I third stage. There are three different versions of the Soyuz-2. The Soyuz-2-1a is a modernized version of Soyuz,
The more powerful Soyuz-2-1b introduces an RD-0124 third-stage engine in place of the RD-0110 used by the Soyuz-2-1a.
The Soyuz-2-1v, a newer addition to carry lighter payloads, omits the first stage altogether and replaces the core stage engine with an NK-33.
Manufactured by the All-Russia Research Institute of Electromechanics (
NPP VNIIEM), Kanopus V No. 3 and No. 4 are Earth-imaging satellites that are slated to be operated by Roscosmos. Each spacecraft weighs around 1,042 lbs. (473 kilograms) and is fitted with two deployable solar arrays and three imaging instruments. The satellites will operate from a
Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 317 miles (510 kilometers) for a planned five year period.
Kanopus satellites are designed to be used mainly for environmental monitoring, mapping, man-made and natural disaster detection and management, agricultural monitoring and fire detection. They are also designed to provide wide-angle images to compliment the constellation of high-resolution Resurs satellites.
Besides the Russian Kanopus satellites, Thursday’s mission also saw five spacecraft launched on behalf of Germany: four S-NET nanosatellites and one D-Star ONE v 1.1 Phoenix CubeSat.
Read more at
http://www.spaceflightinsider.com/o...-vostochny-11-satellites/#jBcrQcgBWgfYFlbo.99
