Image Courtsey Yahoo News

Notwithstanding the disappointment over the abrupt end to the Chandrayaan-1 moon mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday added another feather to its cap by launching the Oceansat-2, a remote sensing satellite that would provide a range of services for the fishermen as well as help scientists get better knowledge of the Indian seas.

Six other nano-satellites from different countries were aboard the PSLV-C14 and were all fired into their respective orbits within a time span of 20 minutes. Today’s launch was the 15th consecutive successful flight for ISRO’s evergreen launch vehicle, the PSLV.

Coming just ahead of the start of the fishing season in October, the launch of Oceansat-2, India’s 16th remote sensing satellite, would bring huge benefits to the fishing community who would be one of the biggest users of the information sent out by the satellite.

The Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM), one of the three payloads on Oceansat-2 that has been dubbed as the common man’s satellite, would transmit data that would be used to provide a range of fishery services to the community like information about the areas greater fish density, high and low tides and wind and sea currents.

The Ministry of Earth Sciences gives out comprehensive information related to fishing along the entire coastline thrice a week. But for the past couple of years, it was depending on information being provided by some foreign satellites. This was because data coming from Oceansat-1, a similar satellite that was launched in 1999, had not been of very good quality.

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