ISRO to put seven satellites in orbit on Monday

isro-satellite-launchThe Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has said that it is planning to launch seven satellites from different countries in space on Monday.

Indian President Pranab Mukherjee will be present with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to witness the launch of the satellites on Monday. ISRO has begun a the countdown for the launch of seven satellites that includes Indo-French spacecraft SARAL among others.

The PSLV is scheduled to be launched at 5.56 PM from the first launch pad near the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in the spaceport of Sriharikota. The launch has been cleared by the Launch Authorisation Board, according to the space agency.

The PSLV-C20 will put 400 kg Indo-French satellite and six others into orbit as part of the 23rd PSLV Mission. Other six satellites includes micro-satellites UniBRITE and BRITE from Austria, AAUSAT3 from Denmark, STRaND from United Kingdom and one micro-satellite (NEOSSat) and one mini-satellite (SAPPHIRE) from Canada.

SARAL is a combination of ARgos and ALtika, which are developed by the French space agency CNES for the analysis of the oceans. Officials said that the rehearsal launch of the vehu8cle with all seven satellites has been completed successfully.