ISRO's 100th mission ready to take off

Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is on the verge of a historic century as it gears up for its 100th indigenous mission today. The space agency's old warhorse, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), will blast off into space with two foreign satellites from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota to witness the landmark event as the PSLV is scheduled to take off at 9:51 am.

As part of the mission, 720-kg SPOT-6 remote sensing satellite from France (built by ASTRIUM SAS) and a 15-kg Japanese spacecraft PROITERES would be placed in orbit by ISRO's PSLV C-21.

During the 51-hour countdown that began at 6:51 am on September 7, mandatory checks on the launch vehicle and spacecraft would be carried out and charging of batteries and pressurisation of propellant tanks on board the satellite would be performed, ISRO had said.

India launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta, in 1975. So far, the government has spent around $12 billion on ISRO, a miniscule amount compared to the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) which has an annual budget of $17 billion.