Countdown begins for ISRO commercial mission

Sriharikota: The countdown for ISRO's dedicated commercial mission, the launch of Proba-3 spacecraft of the European Space Agency (ESA) slated for Wednesday. began here on Tuesday. Wednesday's launch would be a technology demonstration mission. NewSpace India Ltd is the commercial arm of ISRO which would launch client vehicles and has secured the order from the European Space Agency for its latest mission.

"The 25-hour countdown started at 3.08 pm on Tuesday and right now the preparatory works (for the launch) are going on," an ISRO official said on Tuesday. Dubbed as the world's first initiative, the Proba-3 (Project for Onboard Autonomy) consists of a double-satellite in which two spacecraft would fly together as one, maintaining precise formation down to a single millimetre to study the sun's outer atmosphere. 'Probas' is a Latin word, which refers to 'Let's try'.

The mission objective is to demonstrate precise formation flying and the two spacecraft - 'Coronagraph' and 'Occulter' would be launched together in a stacked configuration, ISRO said. The Bengaluru-headquartered ISRO is using its dedicated workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) for the mission. The PSLV is on its 61st flight and the 26th of the PSLV-XL variant and it is scheduled for a lift-off from the first launch pad at this spaceport at 4.08 pm on Wednesday.