"These satellites are very healthy and the first picture from Cartosat will be received tomorrow," Vikaram Sarabhai Space Centre Director B N Suresh told reporters today at the airport here on arrival from Sriharikota.

Delhi would be the first place to be mapped by the satellite followed by Goa, he said.

Referring to the "uniqueness" of the launch, he said a lot of new technology had been used and this would help ISRO in its reuseable launch vehicle project and manned-mission programme.

The SRE-1 is now in orbit and few experiments will be conducted and "if everything goes all right, we are planning to recover it after 12 days." It would be splashdown in the Bay of Bengal about 140-km east off Sriharikota coast.

For the first time images of the separation of the satellites had been taken by onboard video imaging system successfully and the images would be released shortly.

To a question on the commercial advantage of the launch, Liquid Propulsion System Centre Director R V Perumal said, "We have a good prospect in launch service, building satellites and also selling services like remote sensing services."

Source: Press Trust of India

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