Indian space scientists were counting down the final hours Monday before a home-built rocket launches an Italian satellite into space in the country's first commercial space mission.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is scheduled to blast off at 3:30 pm (1000 GMT) from Sriharikota spaceport, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Chennai in southern India, space agency officials said.
"The countdown, which involves a series of precisely timed operations, is going on," a spokesman for the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation said. "The PSLV has been mated with its payload and the fully integrated vehicle is standing on the launchpad."
The 15-storey-high rocket is being pumped with liquid propellant and undergoing pre-launch tests, said the spokesman.
It will launch the 352-kilogram (774-pound) Italian astronomical satellite Agile that will be used to gather information about the origins of the universe.
"The payload will be separated from the vehicle in its orbit 23 minutes after the takeoff," the spokesman said.
The 48-hour countdown began on Saturday, setting the stage for a launch that India hopes will win it membership of an exclusive club of nations to successfully put their space programmes to commercial use.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is scheduled to blast off at 3:30 pm (1000 GMT) from Sriharikota spaceport, 80 kilometres (50 miles) north of Chennai in southern India, space agency officials said.
"The countdown, which involves a series of precisely timed operations, is going on," a spokesman for the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation said. "The PSLV has been mated with its payload and the fully integrated vehicle is standing on the launchpad."
The 15-storey-high rocket is being pumped with liquid propellant and undergoing pre-launch tests, said the spokesman.
It will launch the 352-kilogram (774-pound) Italian astronomical satellite Agile that will be used to gather information about the origins of the universe.
"The payload will be separated from the vehicle in its orbit 23 minutes after the takeoff," the spokesman said.
The 48-hour countdown began on Saturday, setting the stage for a launch that India hopes will win it membership of an exclusive club of nations to successfully put their space programmes to commercial use.
India wants to compete with the United States, Russia, China, the Ukraine and the European Space Agency in offering commercial satellite launch services, a market worth up to 2.5 billion dollars a year.
The PSLV that will carry the Italian payload into space has carried out nine successful launches since 1994 -- including eight remote-sensing and one amateur radio satellite -- and is known as the workhorse of the Indian space programme.
Capable of placing 1,500-kilogramme satellites into orbit, the rocket has been modified to launch the much smaller Agile, together with which it will carry a space module to test avionic systems like mission computers and navigation systems.
Capable of placing 1,500-kilogramme satellites into orbit, the rocket has been modified to launch the much smaller Agile, together with which it will carry a space module to test avionic systems like mission computers and navigation systems.
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