Chennai, Sep 15 (UNI) The 33-hour countdown for the launch of
two commercial Satellites from England using the home grown
PSLV rocket began at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)
at Sriharikota, about 100 km from here, on Saturday afternoon.
Indian Space Research organisation (ISRO) sources told UNI
that the countdown began at 1307 hrs.
The PSLV-C42, carrying earth observation satellites NovaSAR
and S1-4, together weighing nearly 889 kg, would lift off from the
First Launch Pad at 2207 hrs on Sunday night.
During the countdown, propellant filling operations (solid
and liquid) would be taken up in the four stage vehicle.
The Launch Authorisation Board (LAB), which met at the SDSC,
cleared the mission after which the countdown commenced this
afternoon.
With a lift of mass of 230.4 tons, the 44.4 m tall PSLV-C42
would be purely a commercial mission designed to launch two
earth observation satellites, NovaSAR and S1-4 of M/s Surrey
Satellite Technologies Limited (SSTL), United Kingdom, under
the commercial arrangement with Antrix Corporation Limited,
the commercial arm of ISRO.
About 17 minutes after lift off, both the satellites would be
launched into a 583 km Sun Synchronous Orbit, with an
inclination of 97.806 deg to the equator.
This would be the 44th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch
Vehicle (PSLV) and the 12th flight of the Core Alone version
(without the strap on motors).
This would be the 33rd launch of PSLV from the First Launch Pad.
The 445 kg NovaSAR was a S-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite
intended for forest mapping, land use and ice cover monitoring,
flood and disaster monitoring, besides ship detection and maritime
monitoring.
The 444 kg S1-4 was a high resolution Optical Earth Observation
Satellite, used for surveying resources, environment monitoring,
urban management and for the disaster monitoring.
UNI GV CS 1640