Chennai: The countdown for the launch of
Oceansat-2 satellite that would help identify potential
fishing zones and in coastal zone studies from Sriharikota, 90
kilometres from here began on Monday.
The 970-kg satellite would be shot into space on
September 23 by Indian Space Research Organisation`s Polar
Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) along with six European nano
spacecrafts, giving the mission an European flavour.
"Countdown began today at 9 AM and everything is going on
smoothly," ISRO spokesperson S Satish told a news agency.
A set of two Rubin nano and four cubeats would also ride
piggyback, accompanying Oceansat-2, on the homegrown PSLV
rocket that will blast off from the Satish Dhavan Space Centre
at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Apart from two Rubin nano satellites from Germany, the
four cubesats lined up for the mission are: Beesat, built by
Technical University Berlin, UWE-2 (University of Wuerzburg
Germany), ITU-pSat (Istanbul Technical University Turkey) and
SwissCube-1 (Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne,
Switzerland).
All parameters were normal and efforts for a smooth
launch were underway in full swing, Satish said.
Oceansat-2, the 16th remote sensing satellite of India,
is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, sea
state forecasting, coastal zone studies and providing inputs
for weather forecasting and climate studies.
Bureau Report
It is an in-orbit replacement to Oceansat-1, launched by
ISRO in May 1999, which was used to study physical and
biological aspects of oceanography.
Data from Oceansat-1, which has completed 10 years of
odyssey, was widely used by fishermen.
Bureau Report
