India successfully launched an Israeli “spy satellite”

• India successfully placed an Israeli “spy satellite” in the polar orbit after a textbook launch carried out under a veil of secrecy from the Sriharikota space station on 21st January.The homegrown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C10) carrying the advanced 300-kg satellite TECSAR or Polaris as it is sometimes called lifted off flawlessly from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre as scheduled revealed Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) .
• The commercial satellite, which has a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), an advanced radar system, was placed in its intended orbit in 19 minutes 45 seconds after a perfect lift-off.The satellite is reported to be Israel’s most advanced satellite and the radar system allows it to view much more than its existing Ofek satellites that use cameras. It can take pictures of small targets under cloudy and foggy conditions and carry out day and night and all weather imaging. The first pictures are expected to be beamed in two weeks.
• It is expected to give a boost to Israel’s intelligence gathering capabilities and help keep an eye on its hostile neighbours. (The “spy” satellite is of great importance to Israel as it will be able to track the goings-on in the territory of its main enemy Iran and its alleged efforts to develop nuclear arms).
• TECSAR is a Synthetic Aperture Radar technology satellite, the design, development and fabrication of which were led by MBT Space, a division of the Israeli Aerospace industries with participation of other high-tech industries such as ELTA, Tadiran, Spectralink and Rafael.This is the second time that a “core alone” PSLV configuration had put a foreign satellite into orbit, meaning only the main PSLV vehicle was used for the TECSAR launch. The additional strap-on engines or booster motors to take up more than 600 kg payloads of satellites were not used.In April 2007, an Italian satellite Agile was put into orbit in such a configuration.