CONTEXT:

• Indian Space Research Organisation has successfully launched its earth observation satellite RISAT-2B from Sriharikota.
• ISRO’s trusted workhorse PSLV-C46 carrying RISAT-2B blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 5:30 this morning.

BACKGROUND:

• The 615 kg satellite was released into the orbit 15 minutes after the lift-off. RISAT-2B meant for application in fields such as surveillance, agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. It will replace the RISAT-2, which was launched in 2009.
• This particular mission is really important in the sense that PSLV has crossed a landmark of launching 50 tonnes into space.
• There are several new features in RISAT-2B. Dr Sivan said, it is having expanded Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) making it an advanced earth observation satellite, operating in spotlight mode, mode and mosaic mode.