The 29-hour countdown for tomorrow's launch of navigation satellite 'IRNSS-1H' to augment the existing seven satellites of the NavIC constellation began today.
"The 29-hr countdown operations of the PSLV-C39/IRNSS-1H mission have started on Wednesday at 14:00 hrs IST," the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
The launch is scheduled at 1900hrs from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
PSLV-C39 will use the 'XL' version of PSLV equipped with six strap-ons, each carrying 12 tons of propellant. The spacecraft weighs over 1,400kg and was built and tested by ISRO along with a consortium of six small and medium industries.
The Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS) is an independent regional navigation satellite system developed by India at par with US-based GPS.
ISRO had launched seven satellites — IRNSS-1G on April 28, 2016, IRNSS-1F (March 10, 2016), IRNSS-1E (January 20, 2016), IRNSS-1D (March 28, 2015), IRNSS-1C (October 16, 2014), IRNSS-1B (April 4, 2014) and IRNSS-1A on July 1, 2013.
According to ISRO officials, the total cost of all the seven satellites was $ 222 million.
