Today, India successfully launched its all-weather defense surveillance satellite – radar imaging satellite (RISAT-2) – and the micro education satellite ANUSAT.

RISAT is an all weather radar imaging satellite for remote sensing the country’s border round-the-clock. It has a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), that will add defense capabilities. It can take images of the earth during day and night, as well as in cloudy conditions. It is also used to observe earth during floods, cyclones and landslides to enhance disaster management.

ANUSAT is the first experimental communication satellite built by an Indian University. It is a 40 kg micro satellite built by Anna University under the guidance of ISRO, to transfer confidential academic materials including exam question papers. It will also carry out drought and wasteland monitoring, urban planning and other studies. The main idea of this satellite is to make students familiar with satellite designing and launching technologies.

ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said: “This is a fantastic New Year gift for the country. We are happy. Performance of the vehicle is precise. There is no deviation to the planned flight path. Both the spacecrafts being delivered into the orbit.” He also added that “2009 was going to be the year of fireworks for ISRO. We will be launching resourcesat, oceansat and others. Indigenously developed cryogenic engine will be inducted this year.”

Today, India has launched first unmanned spacecraft to orbit to moon at early morning. For last two years, the Indian mission is scheduled to prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants.