The IRS-P3 satellite was launched by ISRO on March 21, 1996 from SHAR Centre, Sriharikota, India. This satellite has a mass of 920 Kg. This mission was carried out in PSLV-D3 launch vehicle and had a mission life of up to 9 years and 10 months. It consist of two remote sensing payloads - Wide Field Sensor (WiFS) similar to that of IRS-1C, with an additional Short Wave Infrared Band (SWIR) and a Modular Opto-electronic Scanner (MOS). The satellite also carried an X-ray astronomy payload and a C-band transponder for radar calibration.