Manmohan to witness ISRO’s 100th mission
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday said it was all set to launch the historic PSLV-C21 on Sunday morning.
The
wholly commercial launch will be the space agency's 100th mission in 49
years. So far it has built 62 satellites and flown 37 launch vehicles.
Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh is slated to arrive at the space port of
Sriharikota, some 120 km from Chennai and located in coastal Andhra
Pradesh, on Saturday evening and witness the launch on 9.51 a.m. on
Sunday, ISRO officials said.
The PSLV will carry
France’s SPOT-6 earth observation satellite as the primary payload and
PROITERES, a small spacecraft built by a team of Osaka Institute of
Technology in Japan, as a secondary rider. They will be put into their
respective pole-to-pole orbits at a distance of 655 km from Earth.
Scientists
at the launch site, Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, began a
51-hour countdown at 6.51 a.m. on Friday, a release said.
The Launch Authorisation Board met on Thursday and cleared the event.
During
the run-up, teams associated with the launch will complete filling
liquid propellants in the second and fourth stages (PS2 and PS4) of the
launch vehicle. The rocket and the spacecraft will be checked. Batteries
will be charged and the fuel tanks on the satellites will be
pressurised, the ISRO officials said.
“Readiness of
various ground systems such as tracking radar systems and communication
networks will also be ascertained,” they said.
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