India will proceed with a plan to launch a lunar polar orbiter, Somayana 1, aboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in 2007-8. The 4 billion rupee ($85 million) mission would conduct global imaging, mineralogy and chemical mapping of the moon from a 100km orbit, producing a three-dimensional atlas with a resolution down to 5m.
India also reports that its C-band, Ku-band communications satellite, GSAT 2, will be launched aboard the Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle D2 from the Satish Dhawan centre, Shriharikota, in May.
Source: Flight International
