ISRO may launch X - Sat in orbit in Feb

Wednesday, 05 January 2011, 15:25 IST
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Singapore: The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) is expected to launch Singapore's first satellite in orbit next month. The launch of the satellite, dubbed X - Sat, has been delayed since 2007. Experts estimated that the delay has raised the cost of satellite four - fold to more than S$40 million from the earlier estimates of S$10 million, according to a report in The Straits Times today. No reasons were given for the delay in the launch of X-Sat last month (December 2010) and it was not linked to the failure of ISRO's Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle on Christmas Day. The X-Sat would ride on Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which has made 17 launches since its maiden flight in 1993, and has successfully put 38 satellites into the space out of the 40. The X-Sat, a refrigerator sized micro-satellite, would be in orbit for three years at a height of 800 km. It would take photographs to measure soil erosion and environmental changes on Earth, then relay them to a ground station at Singapore's Nanyang Technological University (NTU). "The experimental micro-satellite is in the final phase of preparation leading to its assembly on the PSLV rocket. Stringent checks would be carried out before the launch," the paper quoted a NTU spokesman as saying. But ISRO has not set a launch date, the spokesman added.
Source: PTI
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