When the latest member of the Cartosat family “opens its eyes on the world” for the first time on Monday, scientists at the Earth Station Complex in Shadnagar, about 60 km from Hyderabad, will get the first glimpses of its aerial view. The Shadnagar facility of the National Remote Sensing Centre received data from the 710 kg Cartosat-2 17 minutes after lift-off on Friday. Minutes after the satellite was launched, the Earth Station received telemetry data indicating the satellite’s health.

“The satellite’s health indicators are good. It is being commanded from Bengaluru and its data will be received at Shadnagar. The rocket placed it around 10 km from its intended orbit,” a scientist at the NRSC informed.

The satellite’s first-day images, after a series of manoeuvres on Saturday, are likely to be from northern half of the country, sources said. Besides transmitting data to Shadnagar, some of ISRO’s satellites also transmit data to an NRSC ground station in Antarctica.

The Cartosat series of satellites can reportedly be utilised for a range of purposes from pure cartography to surveillance. The last Cartosat satellite that was launched in June 2017 sent images of India and also that of Doha in Qatar when it first started operations.

Addition of the latest Cartosat-2 series satellite will increase frequency of imaging a global location, scientists said. With its current satellite constellation, India can image any location on the planet every fourth day. The cameras on the latest satellite provide sub-meter resolutions, scientists said on Friday.

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