New Delhi: September 23, 2007 – India is stepping up its military advancement in view of her neighboring countries that are quite active in accelerating their military strike capabilities. .India has thus decided to  launch an advanced satellite with military and other applications before X-mas with the help of  Israeli satellite, as per G Madhavan Nair, secretary in the Department of Space and chief of the Indian Space Research Organization.

 "Cartosat-2A is ready for launch," he said. “Cartosat-2A, a remote sensing satellite, and Israel's Polaris would be launched together on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket if this is technically feasible.” .

"There are some technical issues that are got to be resolved. We are in discussion with the Israeli space agency; we may go for simultaneous launch if it's technically feasible. There are some questions to be discussed," Nair said here.”

"We have not yet finalized the date for the launch. We want to do it before the end of the year. That's our target". However, it is possible that the launch may take place before the Christmas.

ISRO officials brushed aside suggestions in some quarters that Cartosat-2A is India's first dedicated defence satellite but gave enough indications that it could be used for military purposes.

"The pictures which we get from this satellite (Cartosat- 2A)...what applications we use...(are) left to the imagination of the user. We don't put a restriction on anybody using it," Nair said.

The new satellite has a panchromatic camera designed to provide imagery with one metre spatial resolution -- in other words, it can spot objects measuring only one metre. It is capable of providing scene-specific spot imagery for cartographic and other applications, as per TOI.