India’s 1st dedicated satellite for astronomy research ‘Astrosat’ to be launched today

Country's first dedicated satellite for astronomy research, Astrosat, will be launched from Sriharikota at 10 AM today. 50-hour countdown for its launch, which began at 8 AM on Saturday, is progressing smoothly. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C30 will carry Astrosat into a low earth equatorial orbit after its take off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. 

The launch vehicle will also carry six small satellites from different countries. Specialty of Astrosat is its ability to observe celestial bodies like distant stars and cosmic X-Ray sources in different wavelengths simultaneously.AIR correspondent reports, Astrosat is India’s major scientific mission after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan. It is the country’s first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. Its sophisticated payloads such as the telescopes, sky monitors, mirrors and special imager have been developed jointly by ISRO and many prominent research institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics.