Chennai, March 14,2023:  The ground station to receive data from India-Bhutan SAT or INS-2B satellite that was launched by an Indian rocket was inaugurated in Thimpu in Bhutan.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), the ground station will enable Bhutan to receive data from India-Bhutan SAT, pertaining to its territory, directly from the satellite and process in real-time.

The Indian space agency was involved in building the ground station and the training of the officials there.

The INS-2B or India-Bhutan SAT was ISRO’s second nano satellite for Bhutan with two payloads viz., NanoMx and APRS-Digipeater. The NanoMx is a multispectral optical imaging payload developed by ISRO’s Space Applications Centre (SAC).

The APRS-Digipeater payload is jointly developed by DITTBhutan and ISRO’s UR Rao Satellite Centre (URSC), ISRO had said.

The satellite was put into orbit by the Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C54 (PSLV-C54) on November 26, 2022 as a piggyback payload to the Indo-French ocean observation satellite EOS 06.

The Indian space agency said S.Somanath, Chairman ISRO/ Secretary, Department of Space, along with Lyonpo Tandi Dorji, Foreign Minister, Lyonpo Karma Donnen Wangdi, Minister of Industry, Commerce and Employment, Royal Government of Bhutan and Sudhakar Delela, Indian Ambassador to Bhutan inaugurated it.