India's latest remote sensing satellite, RESOURCESAT-1, which was launched by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C5, from Satish Dhawan Space Centre - SHAR, yesterday (October 17, 2003), is functioning well.

Soon after its injection into orbit, the two solar panels of the satellite were automatically deployed and, subsequently, the spacecraft was put in 3-axis stabilized mode. Commands were issued today (October 18, 2003), from the Spacecraft Control Centre of the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) at Bangalore to release the payload steering mechanism of the Linear Imaging Self-Scanning Sensor (LISS-4) that will enable the camera to take stereoscopic imageries. The camera was held down during the launch phase. The Star Sensor, which is used for accurately orienting the satellite, has also been switched on for initial tests.
RESOURCESAT-1 is being tracked by ISTRAC through a network of ground stations at Bangalore, Lucknow, Mauritius, Biak in Indonesia and Bearslake in Russia, for executing critical operations on the spacecraft and to precisely determine the orbit of the satellite to carry out fine-tuning of its orbit. All systems of the satellite are working well.