Question

The first Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS-IA was launched in ______________.

Answer 1

Hint: The indigenous remote sensing satellite the IRS-1A developed by ISRO, was launched by a Soviet launch vehicle Vostok. IRS-IA was the first Indian-made remote sensing satellite developed by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

Complete step-by-step solution:
The IRS-1A or the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite-1A was launched from a Soviet cosmodrome, the Baikonur Cosmodrome. The Soviet cosmodrome, the Baikonur cosmodrome is currently in Kazakhstan. On 17 March 1988, around $12:00$ AM Indian Standard Time was its launching time. Russian Vostok was its launch vehicle. It was launched into a polar sun-synchronous orbit. The satellite’s mission was to be used for land-based applications in areas like hydrology, agriculture, geology, and forestry and it was operational remote sensing. While passing over the country, it had a swath width of 140 km. 975 kg was the total weight of the satellite. Three solid-state push-broom cameras constituted its payload which are LISS-1 with a resolution of $72.5$ m; LISS-2A; and LISS-2B with a resolution of $$36.25$$ m (LISS stands for Linear Imaging Self-Scanning System). 600 Watts was its onboard power. The location of its orbit was 904 km above the earth. $99.01$ degrees was the orbit inclination with a 22 days repeat cycle. It had an apogee of 917 km and a perigee of 863 km. IRS-1A was developed and owned by ISRO and was an earth observation satellite. The satellite’s communication parameters were X-band, S-band, and VHF. It had four magnetic torquers and reaction wheels. Monopropellant Hydrazine with sixteen 1 Newton thrusters was used for propellants. Around $10:00$ AM was the fixed Local passing time over the equator. During July 1996, the mission was completed after serving for 8 years and 4 months.

Note: Artificial satellites like that of IRS-IA are designed by scientists. These are carried by rocket and placed in orbit around the earth to acquire information about the universe or for communication. EDUSAT, INSAT, etc. are some of the Indian satellites in space. Other than these human-made satellites there are other satellites that are celestial bodies moving around planets in the same way as the planets move around the sun. The Moon is Earth’s satellite.