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ISRO GETS INTO SATELLITE
LAUNCHING GAME
Come 11:52 AM, 26 May and the Indian Space
Research Organisation will send its first satellite launcher
PSLV-C2 into space from the Sriharikota Space Range Centre
in the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The launch vehicle
has a payload of three satellites - a German, a Korean and
an Indian remote sensing satellite, Oceansat. These are to
be placed in a polar synchronous orbit 727 km above the earth
by the indigenously-designed four stage rocket. The German
and Korean satellites are micro-satellites and are called
Kitsat and Tubsat respectively.
At the time of writing, the integration of
the rocket and the satellites had been completed and the countdown
to launch had commenced. Fuelling operations of all its stages
had been completed and the launcher was being checked for
launch readiness.
Isro chairman K. Kasturirangan said that the
space agency has already got a booking to launch a Belgian
satellite using the PSLV in future. He added that Isro will
launch satellites into space at prices 30-40% lower than other
agencies and had got customers interested in its facilities.
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