An Israeli satellite TECSAR has been successfully launched Monday morning amidst much secrecy from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh by a native developed Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Space Centre official S V Ramanayya said, “The TECSAR sometimes referred as Polaris was successfully launched in clear weather at 9:15 am local time (0345 GMT).”
The Polaris is believed as spy satellite by many countries comprising Gulf and Pakistan, who were not in favour to India carrying out the launch.
The PSLV’s own weigh is 230 tonnes and can put satellite up to a load of 600 kg into orbit.
A spokesman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that this was the second time when a core alone PSLV configuration had succeeded in laying a satellite into orbit.
Earlier an Italian remote sensing satellite ‘Agile’, weighing about 300 kg was put into the orbit in April 2007.
ISRO earlier had announced the launch of the “spy satellite” but that announcement was not related to this spaceship.
Israel took the decision to launch it from India three years ago because it lacks a vehicle capable of advancing the satellite into a polar orbit, said a defence analyst.
The launch of the Israeli satellite was initially scheduled in September last year, but for some technical reason the launch could not take place, though no ‘later date’ was fixed then.
ISRO has made no formal announcement for this mission owing to the political sensitivity of the launch.
It is expected that the spy satellite could provide Israel the capability to keep an eye on the Iranian nuclear programme. That’s why the launch was disliked by some countries as it was being seen by the Islamic world as a ominous association between India and Israel.
In 1963, when India commenced its space programme and travelled a long mile ahead since then and successfully developed and launched its own satellite into space.
The first domestic satellite weighing 35 kg was launched by India through its own native built rocket in 1980.
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