The successful launch of the around Rs.180 crore and 1,513 kg ASTROSAT
and placing it in orbit at an altitude of 650 km above the earth on
Monday morning Sep 28,2015 would make India a member of select group of nations
having its own space observatory after the US, Japan, Russia and Europe.
However, it will not be right to call ASTROSAT as India's 'Hubble'. The
Hubble owned and launched by the US in 1990 is 10 times heavier than the
ASTROSAT and is said to cost $2.5 billion.
While the Hubble space telescope is still working now, India's ASTROSAT's life span is five years.
The 44.4 metre-tall 320-tonne polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-XL) version is a four-stage rocket with six strap-on motors for additional thrust during the initial phase of the flight. The first and third stages are powered by solid fuel while the second and fourth stages are powered by liquid fuel which will be filled during the countdown.
Apart from fuelling up the engines, all the systems would be checked and re-checked during the countdown.
The 50-hour countdown for the rocket launch began at 8.00 a.m on
Saturday at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra
Pradesh, around 70 km from here. The rocket with seven satellites
cumulatively weighing 1,631 kg will blast off on Monday at 10.00 a.m.
from the first launch pad of the rocket port.
For the third time an Indian rocket will be launching seven satellites
in a single mission.
In 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go,
including India's Cartosate-2A satellite.
Just over 22 minutes into the flight, the rocket will eject ASTROSAT.
Soon after, six other satellites will be put into orbit and the whole mission will come to an end in just over 25 minutes.
The Indonesian 76 kg LAPAN-A2 is a micro-satellite from the National
Institute of Aeronautics and Space, meant for providing maritime
surveillance using automatic identification system (AIS), supporting
Indonesian radio amateur communities for disaster mitigation and
carrying out earth surveillance using video and digital camera.
The 14 kg NLS-14 (Ev9) of Space Flight Laboratory, University of Toronto
Institute for Advanced Studies, is also a maritime monitoring Canadian
nano satellite using the next generation AIS.
The remaining four LEMUR nano satellites from Spire Global Inc., San
Francisco, US, are non-visual remote sensing satellites, focusing
primarily on global maritime intelligence through vessel tracking via
AIS and high-fidelity weather forecasting using GPS radio occultation
technology, the ISRO said.
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