CHENNAI: India's own Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1), launched Thursday, has been placed in its final intended orbit, said the country's space agency said Saturday.
In a statement issued here, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said the Risat-1 has now been placed its final polar sun-synchronous orbit of 536 km height.
The ISRO's rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) had ejected the satellite at an height of around 480 km wherefrom the satellite was raised upwards by firing its onboard motors.
"The satellite is now in its final orbital configuration and in good health. In the coming days, various elements of the C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) will be tested and calibrated as a prelude to payload operations," the statement said.
As compared to the optical remote sensing satellites that depend upon sunlight, the SAR of Risat-1 transmits its own radar pulses (at 5.35 GHz) to study the objects on Earth. This facilitates cloud penetration and imaging even without sunlight.
For Risat-1 the imaging sessions around both 6 a.m and 6 p.m have been chosen, the ISRO statement said.