All plans and preparations are in full swing in ISRO for the launch of geostationary weather satellite INSAT-3DR sometime by the end of August month, a top official of the agency told media.
The GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) Mark II will carry the geostationary weather satellite INSAT-3DR.
As per reports, the launch is tentatively slated for August 28 at Sriharikota.
“The weather satellite INSAT-3DR will be put into orbit by a GSLV rocket August end. Preparations for the launch are going on,” said P. Kunhi Krishnan, Director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC).
India’s rocket port is located in SDSC in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh. A senior official of the Indian Space Research Organisation told media that the satellite is yet to reach the rocket port.
Normally the satellites reach the rocket port around a couple of weeks before the launch date.
“We are looking to launch it by end of next month," ISRO Satellite Centre Director Mayilsami Annadurai told reporters here on the sidelines of a function.
The space agency had successfully launched INSAT-3D, a satellite aided search and rescue satellite, from French Guiana in 2013.
ISRO made its last successful launch of 20 satellites, including its earth observation Cartosat-2 series, in a single mission on board ISRO's workhorse PSLV-C34 from the spaceport of Sriharikota last month.
ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar had recently said that the space agency was planning to increase the number of rocket launches from the present eight to 12 every year.
(With Agency inputs)
