India to Launch Its First Agile Remote Sensing Satellite on 5 March – Space Agency

New Delhi (Sputnik): This is the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)’s first mission in 2020. The rocket will use a cryo-engine to send a satellite into geostationary orbit. At the beginning of the year, ISRO revealed that it is planning to launch at least 25 missions in 2020 including Gaganyaan, India’s first manned space mission.

ISRO announced on Friday that Geo Imaging Satellite-1 (GISAT-1) will be India’s first agile earth observation satellite operating from geostationary orbit.

Weighing about 2,268 kg, GISAT-1 will be placed in a geosynchronous transfer orbit via a GSLV-F10 rocket. It will then reach the final geostationary orbit using its onboard propulsion system.

A four-metre ogive-shaped payload fairing is being flown for the first time in this GSLV flight, SRO added. Known as a heat shield, payload fairing is used to protect the satellite from aerodynamic forces and the external atmosphere encountered during flight.

​ISRO revealed the picture of GISAT-1, which is protected between two halves of payload fairing. However, the fairing structure gets jettisoned from the vehicle through the joints without affecting the trajectory of the vehicle once it reaches the desired altitude.

Operating from geostationary orbit, GISAT-1 will facilitate near real-time observation of the Indian sub-continent, under cloud-free conditions, at frequent intervals. ISRO claimed that the satellite is configured around a modified I-2K bus carrying multispectral and hyperspectral payloads in different bands with improved spatial and temporal resolution.

Sourse: sputniknews.com