The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite IRS Cartosat-2 has been successfully launched into polar orbit on January 10, 2007. The payload was lifted by the PSLV-C7 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

Cartosat-2 is highly agile and can be operated in different imaging modes. E.g. in spot mode, imaging in North-South direction on either side of the track, in paint-brush mode, employing roll and pitch tilt to increase the total swath, and in multi-view mode, imaging one strip three times with different look angles.

Cartosat-2 will be an advanced remote sensing satellite with a single panchromatic camera capable of providing scene-specific spot imageries for cartographic applications. The camera is designed to provide imageries with better than one meter spatial resolution and a swath of 10 km. The satellite will have high agility with capability to steer along and across the track up to + 45 degrees. It will be placed in a sun-synchronous polar orbit at an altitude of 630 km. It will have a revisit period of four days. The re-visit can be improved to one day with suitable orbit manoeuvres.

Several new technologies like two mirror on axis single camera, Carbon Fabric Reinforced Plastic based electro optic structure, lightweight, large size mirrors, JPEG like data compression, advanced solid state recorder, high-torque reaction wheels and high performance star sensors are being employed in Cartosat-2.