Indo-French
satellite 'SARAL'
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**aimed at oceanographic studies,
**The PSLV-C20 rocket is expected to deliver its main luggage — the 407-kg SARAL (Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA) and six other foreign satellites 794 km above the earth.
**The ISRO-built SARAL --> 410-kg satellite with payloads -- Argos and Altika -- from French space agency CNES
***for study of ocean parameters towards enhancing the understanding of the ocean state conditions which are otherwise not covered by the in-situ measurements
**Altimeter (Altika) would help study the sea surface heights while Argos payload is a satellite-based data collection platform.
**The successful launch of the satellites will take ISRO’s tally of launching foreign satellites to 35.
**Besides SARAL, two micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria
**AAUSAT3 from Denmark and STRaND from United Kingdom
**as also one micro-satellite (NEOSSat) and one mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada were launched by PSLV, which yet again proved its versatality recording its 22nd succesful flight in a row in its 23 missions of which the first one had failed.
Argos and Altika |