India’s first indigenous all-weather Radar Imaging Satellite (Risat-1) was put into orbit by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C19 on 26th April 2012, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Shar in Sriharikota located in SPSR Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh.
The new state-of-the-art Mission Control Centre in SHAR, Nellore was used for the first time to launch the 1,858-kg microwave sensing satellite, Risat-1. The first microwave sensing satellite developed in the country, it puts an end to India’s dependence on other countries for pictures of earth during cloudy conditions.
RISAT-1 carries a C-band payload that enables applications in agriculture, particularly paddy monitoring in the kharif season and management of natural disasters like floods and cyclone. The mission cost was 488 crores with 378 crores spent for Risat-1 and 110 crores for PSLV-C19.
Nellorean 