ISRO Will Start This Year’s Launch Mission On February 14

ISRO will start this year’s launch mission on February 14, PSLV-C52 will carry the EOS-04 satellite.

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) will begin its 2022 launch mission on February 14. The space agency will send Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-04) from the PSLV-C52 rocket to polar orbit on that day.

ISRO said that PSLV-C52 will be launched at 5:59 am on Monday from the launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

For this, the process of counting 25 hours 30 minutes will start on February 13 at 4:29 am. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C52) is designed to deliver the 1,710 kg EOS-04 into orbit.

ISRO said that two small satellites will also be sent along with EOS-04.

These include Inspire Sat-1 of the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) for students and the Technology Demonstrator Satellite (INS-2TD) of ISRO, which is an Indo-Bhutan joint satellite.

The EOS-04 is a radar imaging satellite designed to capture high-quality images in all-weather areas such as agriculture, forestry and plantation, soil moisture and hydrology, and flood mapping.

Another step towards ‘Made in India’, the government banned the import of drones from abroad.

The government on Wednesday banned the import of foreign drones with a few exceptions as part of efforts to promote indigenous manufacturing of drones.

However, its import for defense sectors along with research and development (R&D) has been exempted with certain conditions.

“No approval will be required for import of components of drones,” a release issued by the Ministry of Civil Aviation said today.

The Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has issued a notification banning the import of drones made abroad.

In August last year, the Civil Aviation Ministry had issued liberal rules to boost drone manufacturing in the country. The government introduced more liberal rules for drone use in August last year.

After that in September, the government presented the drone airspace map.

In October, the government came out with the UTM policy framework and in December, DigitalSky, a single-window platform for drone certification, was set up.