RISAT-2, or Radar Imaging Satellite-2 was an Indian radar imaging

reconnaissance satellite A reconnaissance satellite or intelligence satellite (commonly, although unofficially, referred to as a spy satellite) is an Earth observation satellite or communications satellite deployed for military or intelligence applications. The ...

that was part of India's RISAT programme. It was built by

Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman of ...

(ISRO) and successfully launched aboard a PSLV-CA launch vehicle at 01:15:00 UTC on 20 April 2009 from the

Second Launch Pad Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre ( spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikot ...

at the

Satish Dhawan Space Centre Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SDSC (formerly Sriharikota Range - SHAR) is a rocket launch centre ( spaceport) operated by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota, Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. Sriharikota ...

. The principal sensor of RISAT-2 was an

X-band The X band is the designation for a band of frequencies in the microwave radio region of the electromagnetic spectrum. In some cases, such as in communication engineering, the frequency range of the X band is rather indefinitely set at approxim ...

synthetic-aperture radar (SAR) from

Israel Aerospace Industries Israel Aerospace Industries (Hebrew: התעשייה האווירית לישראל ''ha-ta'asiya ha-avirit le-yisra'el'') or IAI (תע"א) is Israel's major aerospace and aviation manufacturer, producing aerial and astronautic systems for both mi ...

(IAI). It is designed to monitor India's

border Borders are usually defined as geographical boundaries, imposed either by features such as oceans and terrain, or by political entities such as governments, sovereign states, federated states, and other subnational entities. Political bo ...

s and as part of anti-infiltration and anti-terrorist operations. The satellite has a mass of .

History

RISAT-2 was built at an accelerated pace following the

2008 Mumbai attacks The 2008 Mumbai attacks (also referred to as 26/11, pronounced "twenty six eleven") were a series of terrorist attacks that took place in November 2008, when 10 members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, an Islamist terrorist organisation from Pakistan, ...

, due to delay with the indigenously developed C-band for RISAT-1. It is India's first dedicated reconnaissance satellite. The X-band SAR used by RISAT-2 was obtained from

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

in return for launch services for the Israeli TecSAR-1 satellite. The SAR sensor enables RISAT-2 to return images at any time of day and in all weather conditions.

Technical capabilities

RISAT-2 was India's first satellite with a synthetic-aperture radar (SAR). It possess day-night as well as all-weather monitoring capability. Potential applications include tracking hostile ships at sea that are deemed a military threat to India. Though ISRO sought to underplay the satellite's defence applications in its announcements, a substantial number of articles concerning RISAT-2 in the Indian media continue to refer to it as a "spy satellite". This is also supported by the fact that its Israeli sensor is clearly pronounced a military grade sensor by its manufacturer

(IAI).

Launch

ISRO scientists spent tense hours on 19 April 2009 prior to launch as one of the umbilical cords holding the PSLV-CA launch vehicle to the launch pad fell off, damaging nearly six connectors.

ANUSAT satellite

The ANUSAT student

microsatellite A microsatellite is a tract of repetitive DNA in which certain DNA motifs (ranging in length from one to six or more base pairs) are repeated, typically 5–50 times. Microsatellites occur at thousands of locations within an organism's genome. ...

(40 kg) was launched aboard the same launch vehicle as a secondary payload.

Mission

RISAT-2 was used to search for and eventually locate wreckage of the helicopter crash that claimed the life of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, chief minister of the state of Andhra Pradesh, as well as the lives of his fellow passengers, while traveling over dense jungles in southern India on 2 September 2009. The satellite reentered over Sumatra on 30 October 2022 at 00:06 UTC after providing payload data for 13 years.

References