New Delhi (Sputnik): India's space agency ISRO has successfully launched the electronic intelligence satellite EMISAT from its Sriharikota space launch station in the southern part of the country. The payload was accompanied by 28 Nanosatellites, which India launched on behalf of foreign clients.
Salute to never tiring scientists of @isro for making nation🇮🇳secure and proud🙏💪
— Major Surendra Poonia (@MajorPoonia) April 1, 2019
ISRO’s #PSLV45 rocket carrying intelligence satellite
#EMISAT to locate enemy radar & 28 customer satellites (USA-24, Lithuania-2, Spain-1 Switzerland-1) launched successfully from Sriharikota pic.twitter.com/7wghf038fz
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The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-45) delivered the Indian surveillance 'eye in the sky', indicating that South Asia's biggest nuclear-armed nation intends to step up its military preparedness and keep a watch over the movements of its adversaries. The launch of the satellite comes shortly after India test-fired an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile as part of its Mission Shakti operation six days ago.
ISRO ex-chairman G Madhavan Nair: #PSLVC45 is a very imp milestone for ISRO. It's not only going to launch our own satellite but also those from other nations. Uniqueness of this mission is,it's going to place satellites in 3 different orbits.I hope it'll be 100% success as usual pic.twitter.com/4hguGJ5SS0
— ANI (@ANI) April 1, 2019
Until now, India had been dependent on using airplanes as early warning platforms, but today's satellite will give India a space-based platform to monitor its enemies.
India's second technological feat in space within a week: It launches a new PSLV rocket carrying 29 satellites, including EMISAT, an electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) satellite armed with Kautilya, an ELINT package. PSLV 4th stage to turn into an orbiting research platform. pic.twitter.com/CLnnzBfls4
— Brahma Chellaney (@Chellaney) April 1, 2019
India's mission today was special for more than one reason. The ISRO is placing payloads in three orbits and conducting space experiments for the first time.
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"The immediate mission that we are targeting is the PSLV C-45. This mission is special in the sense that for the first time, the PSLV will have a three-orbit mission in a single flight," ISRO chairman K Sivan said.
The EMISAT is a satellite jointly developed by the ISRO and DRDO. It reportedly has a basic architecture similar to HySIS and is based on the Small Satellite Bus (SBS)-2 which was first used in the satellite Saral. The satellite has been under development since 2010.
