INSAT-3A launch in mid-February

The Indian Space Research Organisation will be launching INSAT-3A in mid-February, 2003 from Korou (French Guyana) on an Ariane-5 rocket of the European Space Agency.

Disclosing this in Bangalore on Tuesday, ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan said the satellite will be shipped to the launchpad for launch in the middle of February.

"The satellite will have 24 transponders with C-band for communications, weather forecast, and other applications," Kasturirangan told rediff.com.

INSAT-3E is also in the advance stage of assembly and its launch is scheduled in February 2004, the ISRO chief added.

"Insat-3E will also have 24 transponders, but will be on Ku band," the ISRO chief said. "Both satellites (INSAT-3A & INSAT-3E) will have weather component and high-resolution radiometer to provide multiple space applications."

ISRO is also planning to place a dedicated satellite in the next 30 months for directly beaming education programs in the subcontinent.

Claimed to be first of its kind in the world, the education satellite (Edusat) will be placed in the geostationary orbit (36,000km) by a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle with a payload of over 2000 kg from ISRO's Sriharikota space station on the Andhra coast.

"We have completed the definition of an education satellite to provide unique capabilities from space, including literacy, education, training, distance learning, and enrichment. The Union human resources development ministry is providing the required inputs to ISRO such as software and the infrastructure to operate the satellite," Kasturirangan said.

"We propose to generate revenue from Edusat by providing its link to not only athe private channels, but also to the countries in the region, especially the SAARC nations," Kasturirangan claimed.

ISRO is also working on launching another satellite for the exclusive use of healthcare (HealthSat) to provide telemedicine and telehealth across the country.

"We have already promoted the concept of telemedicine and initial experiments are being conducted by using the existing satellite network. We are waiting for feedback from referral hospitals in semi-urban and rural areas where the experiments are being conducted," Kasturirangan said.

In the Indian Remote Sensing (IRS) satellite series, ISRO will be launching an advanced version of IRS-P6 (ResourceSat) in the third quarter of 2003. It will be followed by IRS-P5 by the end of 2003 or in the early part of 2004. The Cartosat IRS-P5 satellite will be able to give pictures of high resolution in 2.5-meter depth.