CHENNAI, June 28: The 49 hour countdown for the launch of PSLV-C23 Mission, that would ferry five foreign satellites into the orbit on June 30, began at 0852 hrs today at the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) at the Indian Spaceport of Sriharikota, about 80 km from here.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources said the core alone PSLV vehicle (without its solid strap-on motors) would lift from the first launch pad at 0952 hours on Monday. During the countdown, the process of propellant filling in the four-stage vehicle would be carried out. “The countdown has been progressing smoothly,” the sources added.
This would be the first launch for ISRO after the new BJP-led NDA Government assumed office and it would be witnessed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Tight security arrangements have been made at SDSC in view of the Prime Minister’s visit.
Earlier, the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) for the PSLV-C23 mission has cleared the launch of French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7 and four co-passenger satellites from Canada, Germany and Singapore.
The launch was earlier scheduled at 0949 hours, but was re-scheduled by three minutes to 0952 hrs owing to the probability of space debris getting in the way of the launch vehicle.
This would be PSLV’s 27th flight when it would launch SPOT-7, a French Earth Observation Satellite into a 655 km Sun Synchronous Orbit.
PSLV-C23 will carry the 714 kg SPOT-7 as the main payload. Also, the 14 kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) of Canada each weighing 15 kg, and the seven kg VELOX-1 of Singapore are being carried as co-passengers. These five satellites are being launched under commercial arrangements that ANTRIX, the commercial arm of ISRO, has entered with the respective foreign agencies.
This would be a purely commercial launch for ISRO, which had so far launched 35 foreign satellites, all through with its versatile PSLV platform, starting from PSLV-C2 in May 1999 when it first launched Germany’s DLR-TUBSAT to UK’s STRAND-1 Satellite in February last year.
(UNI)
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