Countdown for launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C43 begins

The countdown for the launch of the national space agency ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C43 began this morning at 0558 hrs. The processes during the countdown phase are going on smoothly in its space port at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, some 90 kilometers off Chennai. The processes include the fuelling of the two liquid fuel stages of the rocket and systems check. 

It is set to lift off from its first launch pad carrying India’s latest earth observation satellite HysIS, at 0958 hrs tomorrow morning. The highly versatile rocket would carry thirty other co-passenger satellites from eight nations. 

The hyper-spectral imaging satellite



HysIS will be the principal payload for the rocket PSLV-C43. This will be the 68th launch mission for the national space agency ISRO from Sriharikota and the sixth one this year. For more number crunch, this is the second launch this month. The rocket PSLV will put the satellite HysIS first at an altitude of about 637 kilometer.

Then it will be switched off and on twice to take the other thirty small satellites to an entirely different orbit of about 505 kilometer height and inject them one after the other in quick succession. The novel technology has already been mastered by the ISRO through several test missions in the recent past.