Undeterred by the GSLV-D3 missionfailure, India is going ahead with the launch of an advanced remote-sensing satellite Cartosat-2B, now tentatively fixed for May 9 from Sriharikota spaceport.

The high-resolution spacecraft, designed for an operational life of five years, is slated to be launched from the first launchpad on May 9 around 10 am, ISRO spokesperson S Satish told PTI in Bangalore on Friday.

Yesterday's GSLV-D3 mission to flight-test the indigenous cryogenic engine and stage for the first time ended in failure after the rocket veered off course and plunged into the sea.

GSLV and PSLV missions are independent of each other. ISRO officials said there is no change in its earlier announced plans to launch PSLV in the first half of May -- now fixed for May nine.

"It (Cartosat-2B) will give pictures of 0.8 metre resolution," ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan has told PTI. In simple terms, the single panchromatic camera on board this cartographic satellite would be able to identify and take pictures of a moving car.

Thus, this highly-agile satellite, weighing around 690 kg, is expected to give a boost to the tasks of infrastructure and urban planning. The camera provides scene specific spot imageries for cartographic and a host of other civilian applications

• mission [´miʃən] n.代表团；使馆vt.派遣 (初中词汇)
• failure [´feiljə] n.失败；衰竭；破产 (初中词汇)
• advanced [əd´vɑ:nst] a.先进的；高级的 (初中词汇)
• identify [ai´dentifai] vt.认出；鉴定；验明 (初中词汇)
• launch [lɔ:ntʃ] vt.发动 n.发射；汽艇 (高中词汇)
• specific [spi´sifik] a.具体的；特有的 (高中词汇)
• civilian [si´viljən] n.平民 a.平民的 (四级词汇)
• satellite [´sætəlait] n.(人造)卫星；随从 (六级词汇)
• rocket [´rɔkit] n.火箭；火箭发动机 (六级词汇)