Weather satellite launch countdown to begin at Satish Dhawan Space Centre

Chennai: The 29-hour countdown for the launch of GSLV-F05 carrying advanced weather satellite INSAT-3DR is set to begin from 11.10 am on Wednesday at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

Isro’s Mission Readiness Review (MRR) committee and Launch Authorisation Board (LAB) have cleared the 29-hour countdown and the launch of GSLV-F05/INSAT-3DR mission which is scheduled for 4.10 pm on Thursday.

In this 17-minute flight, GSLV rocket will launch 2,211 kg weather satellite into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). After reaching GTO, INSAT-3DR will use its own propulsion system to reach its final geostationary orbital home.

GSLV-F05 is carrying indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) on board. Though previously three flights have carried the CUS, this is the first operational flight of GSLV carrying it.

“The advanced meteorological satellite has two purposes. One is weather and another one is search and rescue services in disaster situations,” Isro officials said. The search and rescue payload picks up and relays the alert signals originating from the distress beacons of maritime, aviation and land based users to the Indian Mission Control Centre located in Bengaluru.

“It will also provide service continuity to earlier meteorological missions of Isro. It will join INSAT-3A and INSAT-3D to provide operational search and rescue service,” they said.

Imaging in the middle infrared band in the satellite will provide night time pictures of low clouds and fog and imaging in two thermal infrared bands for estimation of Sea Surface Temperature (SST) with better accuracy.

The satellite payloads include a multi-spectral imager, sounder, data relay transponder (DRT) and Satellite aided search and rescue transponder. The mission life of the satellite is ten years.