ISRO to launch Oceansat, 8 nano-satellites today

Chennai: Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) commenced the countdown on Friday for the launch of Earth Observation Satellite - Oceansat - and eight other customer satellites on a PSLV-C54 rocket from the spaceport of Sriharikota on Saturday.

The 25.30-hour countdown for the 56th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), in its extended version (PSLV-XL), started at 10.26 AM today for the lift-off scheduled at 11.56 AM on Saturday from the first launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, 115 km from here, a source said.

The primary payload of the rocket is an Oceansat which would be separated in orbit-1 while the eight other nano-satellites would be placed in different orbits based on the customer requirements (in the Sun-synchronous polar orbits). Including the primary payload, nine satellites would ride piggy-back on

the 44.4-metre high PSLV-C54 which has a lift-off mass of 321 tonne. It is also the 24th flight of the PSLV-XL version.