Countdown begins for Isro's 100th mission

The countdown for Sunday’s landmark 100th Indian space mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) to launch the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C21) began at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at Sriharikota, about 100 km from here, on Friday.

The 51-hour countdown began at 0651 hours on Friday at SDSC’s first launch pad after the Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) for the PSLV-C21/SPOT-6/PROITERES mission cleared its launch for 0951 hours on Sunday (September 9), Isro announced here.

This will be the 100th space mission for Isro, as starting from its first launch of SLV-3 on July 18, 1980, which put the Rohini satellite into orbit, India has completed 99 space missions so far, sources told Deccan Herald. The launch of each rocket is counted as one mission, besides each satellite it carries into space is also reckoned as one mission. “We are not counting the satellites of other countries launched by Isro in this,” sources clarified.

It is in this backdrop that Isro’s 100th mission by a PSLV assumes enormous significance.

While PSLV-C21 will be the 22nd flight of Isro’s workhorse PSLV series, this rocket will launch two foreign satellites. Thus it is counted as only one mission, making it the 100th Indian space mission.

Isro said PSLV-C21 will launch the French Earth Observation Satellite, SPOT 6, along with a 15-kg micro-satellite from Japan called Proiteres, carried as an auxiliary payload, into a 655-km polar orbit.