<p>“The countdown started at 9 a.m. and is proceeding smoothly. The filling of propellant in the fourth stage is on,” an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />“All sub-systems will be checked during the countdown,” the official added.<br />A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will blast off from Sriharikota, 80 km from here, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday to ferry the 1,000-kg Megha Tropique and three smaller satellites together weighing 45 kg.<br /><br />Megha Tropiques is an Indo-French collaboration to study climatic and atmospheric changes in tropical regions and will make India the second nation in the world to launch such a space mission.<br /><br />The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) -- a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall -- was launched Nov 27, 1997.<br /><br />According to Indian space officials, ISRO will bear the launch cost of around Rs.90 crore while French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) has spent around Rs.300 crore.<br /><br />The CNES has built three instruments of Megha Tropiques: SAPHIR, SCARAB & GPS-ROS. The fourth, MADRAS, is a joint effort of ISRO and CNES. <br /><br />The three nano satellites that will be ferried by the PSLV are the 10-kg SRMSAT built by students of SRM University near Chennai; the 3-kg remote sensing satellite Jugnu from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur; and the 30-kg VesselSat from Luxumbourg to locate ships on high seas.<br /><br />For ISRO, this will be the third rocket launch this year from India. In April, the agency successfully launched remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 and two others. In July, communication satellite GSAT-12 was put in orbit.<br /></p>
<p>“The countdown started at 9 a.m. and is proceeding smoothly. The filling of propellant in the fourth stage is on,” an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS, speaking on condition of anonymity.<br /><br />“All sub-systems will be checked during the countdown,” the official added.<br />A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will blast off from Sriharikota, 80 km from here, at 11 a.m. on Wednesday to ferry the 1,000-kg Megha Tropique and three smaller satellites together weighing 45 kg.<br /><br />Megha Tropiques is an Indo-French collaboration to study climatic and atmospheric changes in tropical regions and will make India the second nation in the world to launch such a space mission.<br /><br />The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) -- a joint mission of NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall -- was launched Nov 27, 1997.<br /><br />According to Indian space officials, ISRO will bear the launch cost of around Rs.90 crore while French space agency Centre National d'Études Spatiales (CNES) has spent around Rs.300 crore.<br /><br />The CNES has built three instruments of Megha Tropiques: SAPHIR, SCARAB & GPS-ROS. The fourth, MADRAS, is a joint effort of ISRO and CNES. <br /><br />The three nano satellites that will be ferried by the PSLV are the 10-kg SRMSAT built by students of SRM University near Chennai; the 3-kg remote sensing satellite Jugnu from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur; and the 30-kg VesselSat from Luxumbourg to locate ships on high seas.<br /><br />For ISRO, this will be the third rocket launch this year from India. In April, the agency successfully launched remote sensing satellite Resourcesat-2 and two others. In July, communication satellite GSAT-12 was put in orbit.<br /></p>