Astrosat, India's First Dedicated Space Observatory Ready to Take Off

New Delhi:  Astrosat, the country’s first astronomy observatory to study distant celestial objects, will be launched tomorrow morning from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

India will be the first country in the developing world to have its very own turbo-charged ‘mini Hubble Telescope’ in space.

This flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is historic as, for the first time, American satellites are being launched by India.

Till recently, the US had kept ISRO under sanctions and technology was being denied on a regular basis so much so that under pressure from the US, India was denied the critical cryogenic engine technology which pushed back Indian foray into deep space by two decades.

Now, these four small LEMUR satellites are being launched on a commercial basis for a San Francisco-based company. India’s low cost launching made the Americans shun their attitude towards ISRO.

It will be used to study black holes and analyse how stars and galaxies are actually born and how they ultimately die.

The PSLV will also carry a Canadian and an Indonesian small earth observing satellite as a piggyback payload. This will be the 31st flight of the workhorse PSLV rocket, which has had 30 consecutive successful flights till date.

Called the Astrosat, this unique Indian satellite has been made by the Indian Space Research Organisation and it will be launched from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh using the most powerful version of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

It will be placed almost 650 kilometres above the surface of the Earth and is expected to have a mission life of 5-years.