According to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), vehicle-C20 (PSLV-C20) is currently fixed for Feb 25 evening, and the launch window will be open Feb 22-25 which will be during the 59 hour countdown, the systems will be checked and the rocket will be fueled and that the rocket will blast off from the Sriharikota rocket launch centre which would be carrying seven satellites, totally weighing around 700 kg according to ISRO.

In fact, after mating the satellites with the rocket, a full system check rocket and satellites will be carried out before fixing the heat shield, the protective gear that safeguards the satellites against damages when the rocket crosses the atmosphere.

According to ISRO, the rocket is expected to escape the earth's gravitational force at around 6 p.m. and inject the satellites in sun synchronous orbit (SSO) at around 785 km. Interestingly, PSLV-C20 will sling into orbit two Canadian satellite NEOSSat (Near Earth Object Space Surveillance Satellite), the world's first space telescope designed by Canadian Space Agency (CSA) and Sapphire satellite built by MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA).

The satellite will also be useful in tracking resident space objects including space debris.

ISRO says that the data generated by SARAL will be shared by France and India whereas the other five satellites would be launched on commercial basis. While The SARAL will carry an Altimeter (ALTIKA) for studying the sea surface heights and ARGOS payload, which is a satellite based data collection platform. The other four satellites to be carried by PSLV-C20 are BRITE and UniBRITE (both Austria), STRAND (Britain) and AAUSAT (Denmark).

It's a great news for Indians!

(AW:Samrat Biswas)