MUMBAI, July 23, 2007 - Satnews Daily - India's second commercial and its first foreign military payload-the Israeli TecSAR spy satellite-is creating a wall of security in India out of concerns that the spate of terrorist incidents gripping neighboring Pakistan might spill onto its borders.
So far, India has only acknowledged a September launch date for TecSAR and that the launch vehicle will be its PSLV (Polar Synchronous Launch Vehicle). Beyond that, officials of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) have refused additional comment.
"We do not wish to make any announcement about the forthcoming 'secret' mission now because of the extremely sensitive nature of the payload," a senior ISRO official was quoted as saying. "Yes, as of now the flight is taking place, but I request you not to ask me anything about it at this point. I just cannot say anything. The launch date is yet to be fixed," he said.
TecSAR, which carries an advanced, next generation Synthetic Aperture Radar, will be used to spy on Iran. Iranian media describes TecSar as a "Zionist satellite" whose "main mission is to monitor developments at Iranian nuclear installations." Israel has confirmed that 660 lb. TecSar will be put into orbit primarily to keep on eye on Iran's nuclear installations.
Defense analysts said Israel opted for India's PSLV because of nagging reliability problems with Israel's Shavit launch rocket. Shavit will also have been unable to place TecSAR in an orbit that gives the satellite wider SAR coverage.
The satellite's SAR was developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which also built TecSar, and is capable of creating high-resolution images even in cloudy weather conditions. TecStar will make Israel one of the leading countries in the world in satellite development, said IAI.
TecSar will be the second spy satellite launched by India. The first one was India's own Technology Experiment Satellite (TES), which was orbited by a PSLV in 2001. TES is a photoreconnaissance spy satellite carrying a digital camera with a resolution of less than one meter. India launched its first foreign commercial payload-Italy's Agile science satellite-last May. India is expected to earn some $15 million from the TecSAR mission.
