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Bhaskara

India has 3.3 million sq.km. land area with varied physical features ranging from snow-covered Himalaya in the north to tropical forests in south and from regions in the east receiving highest rainfall in the world to deserts of Rajasthan in the west. India is also blessed with vast natural wealth but yet to be exploited fully. A coastal belt of 7,500 km. has a store of rich aquatic resources. What better way can be there to monitor and manage the natural resources for a large country like India than using the powerful tool of space-based observation systems? India not only demonstrated the potential of space-based remote sensing in the 70s using data received from the US satellite, Landsat, but also built its own experimental satellites, Bhaskara-1 and Bhaskara-2, which were launched in June 1979 and November 1981, respectively.

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