Despite skewed orbit, IRS-1D delivers "very good" pictures

The first pictures from the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS-1D received on Tuesday by the Shadnagar earth ground station of the National Remote Sensing Agency were ''very good'' despite the satellite's elliptical orbit, sources said.

The first pictures sent from the cameras on board IRS-1D covered 3,008 kms, from China, over the Indian landmass to the Middle East, as the satellite passed on its north-south orbit on Tuesday morning, NRSA sources said, adding that the images were sent to the NRSA ground earth station, about 40 km from Hyderabad.

''The orbit does not affect the pictures and the images as seen in the video were excellent'', NRSA sources said.

The reception had been established indicating that the cameras on board the satellite were functioning as planned. The data and the quality of the pictures were being processed and evaluated, sources said.

The Shadnagar station was receiving the IRS-1D data on the high density tapes of four Silicon Graphic workstations -- installed specially for reception from the IRS-1D.

The data browsing by the new workstations which gave the ''real-time pictures'' were seen immediately on the video.

However, it would take about a week more before the NRSA cleared the pictures for end users, sources said.

EARLIER REPORT:
Snag in PSLV may shorten life of IRS-1D