Article Posted on : - Sep 22, 2009

Oceansat- 2 and other payloads on top of PSLV C-14. Image Credit: ISRO

CHENNAI (PTI): The countdown for the launch of Oceansat-2 satellite that would help identify potential fishing zones and in coastal zone studies from Sriharikota, 90 kilometres from here began Monday.

The 970-kg satellite would be shot into space on September 23 by Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) along with six European nano spacecrafts, giving the mission an European flavour.

"Countdown began today at 9 AM and everything is going on smoothly," ISRO spokesperson S Satish told PTI.

A set of two Rubin nano and four cubeats would also ride piggyback, accompanying Oceansat-2, on the homegrown PSLV rocket that will blast off from the Satish Dhavan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

Apart from two Rubin nano satellites from Germany, the four cubesats lined up for the mission are: Beesat, built by Technical University Berlin, UWE-2 (University of Wuerzburg Germany), ITU-pSat (Istanbul Technical University Turkey) and SwissCube-1 (Ecole Polytechnique Federal de Lausanne, Switzerland).

All parameters were normal and efforts for a smooth launch were underway in full swing, Satish said.

Oceansat-2, the 16th remote sensing satellite of India, is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, sea state forecasting, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies.

It is an in-orbit replacement to Oceansat-1, launched by ISRO in May 1999, which was used to study physical and biological aspects of oceanography.