Hyderabad: Indian Space Research organization (ISRO), the country's premier centre for research and development in the field of space science and technology, will soon launch a satellite called Carto-2A to assist Cartography applications including remote sensing, ground water development etc.

Speaking at the launch of India's first students' chapter of Astronautical Society of India, ISRO Deputy Director R K Rajangam said, "The satellite will reach the earth's orbit by the end of January 2008 or the first week of February".

Rajangam added, "Any object wanting to be seen from less than one metre will find an application in the Carto-2A satellite. This would be particularly useful in infrastructure development of urban areas etc. The satellite will be launched using the PSLV launch vehicle."

ISRO has also moved a step ahead by planning to launch commercial satellites from Sriharikota. The first commercial satellite for Israel will be launched on January 2nd, 2008 from Sriharikota.

Speaking about the moon mission program - Chandrayan, Rajangam said, "It is an international project with seven countries, aimed at a moon impact probe. The probe will be jettisoned from an aircraft and will pick up the information. A high spectral camera which will image the moon surface will pick up the information not only of the surface but also look for minerals. The mission launch is fixed in the first week of April as announced earlier."

ISRO is also building two satellites for International customers- EADS Astrium a consortium of a company in Europe and for a customer in UK. Both the satellites, which are at an advanced stage of completion, will be launched in 2008-09.