Article Posted on : - Oct 17, 2008

A security personnel guards the 32-metre dish antenna, at Byalalu village on the outskirts of Bangalore. PTI Photo

HYDERABAD (PTI): With beginning of the countdown for India's moon mission, the 32-metre antenna designed and commissioned by city-based Electronics Corporation of India Ltd (ECIL) is set to track Chandrayaan-1 through its odyssey to the natural satellite of the earth.

The antenna will provide telemetry, command and science data reception functions for all space missions. The challenge of realising this 300-tonne structure has been achieved in a record time using indigenous technical skills, an ECIL release said here today.

ECIL has closely collaborated with Mumbai's Bhabha Atomic Research Centre among other agencies in the development of the high-tech antenna.

The antenna, installed at Bylalu, on Bangalore's outskirts, will be remotely monitored and controlled by a precision servo control system, the release said.

The first-of-its-kind equipment in the country will also support future inter-planetary missions. This has enabled India to join a select band of countries possessing such technology, the company said.

Electronics Corporation CMD K S Rajasekhara Rao said ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair would inaugurate the antenna tomorrow, the release added.