Bangalore: India is anticipated to launch an advanced satellite with military and other applications by the end of existing fiscal involved a home-grown rocket, which will also place an Israeli satellite into space.

An ISRO official said, “Cartosat-2A is ready for launch.”

The secretary in the Department of Space and chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation, G Madhavan Nair pointed that if this is technically possible, then Cartosat-2A, a remote sensing satellite, and Israel’s Polaris would be launched collectively on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket.

Mr. Nair said, “There are some technical issues that have to be resolved. We are in discussion with them (Israeli space agency)...(we will go for simultaneous launch) if it's technically feasible. There are some questions to be discussed.”

"We have not yet finalised the date for the launch. We want to do it before the end of the year. That's our target,” he also said.

ISRO functionaries brushed aside hints in a few quarters that Cartosat-2A is India’s initial dedicated defence satellite but gave enough clues that it could be utilized 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,” added Mr. Nair.

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.