ISRO has launched ASTROSTAT, India’s first satellite for astronomical study, successfully from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) in Nellore. Other than the ASTROSTAT, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C30 (PSLV C-30) carries four satellites from the U.S. and one each from Indonesia and Canada. The total payload weight of PSLV-C30 would be 1,631 kg.
ASTROSTAT
- ASTROSAT is ISRO’s milestone mission, the country’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory that will help in understanding the universe.
- ASTROSAT will study sources of high-energy UV and X-radiation in the cosmos, typically objects like supernovae, neutron stars and black holes, with a notable ability to make observations on both wavelengths simultaneously.
- The mission life of Astrosat is five years.
- It is aimed at studying black holes, neutron stars and extra-galactic systems by making observations in the optical, ultraviolet and X-Ray frequencies.
- ASTROSAT carries an ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (UVIT).
- It is being described as India’s version of the Hubble telescope that NASA had put in space in 1990 and which continues to be operational.
- With this the study of the celestial process can be done from the earth as well.
- ASTROSTAT will put ISRO in a very exclusive club of nations that have space-based observatories. Only the United States, European Space Agency, Japan and Russia have such observatories in space.
