IANS

Bangalore, Apr 15: The countdown to launch a heavy rocket with an Indian cryogenic engine to inject an advanced communication satellite in the geo-synchronous orbit began Wednesday at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, a space agency official said.

"The countdown began at 11.27 a.m. at our Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. All preparations for launching the geo-synchornous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-D3) carrying the geo-stationary experimental satellite (GSAT-4) Thursday at 16.27 IST are progressing satisfactorily," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Director S. Satish told IANS.

The spaceport is located on a small island off the Bay of Bengal, about 80 km north-east of Chennai.

The preparations during the 29-hour countdown includes filling up the second stage and four strap-ons of the 416-tonne rocket with about 200 tonnes of liquid propellants.

"In the run up to lift-off, the cryogenic upper stage will also be filled with propellants. Certain mandatory checks and charging of batteries on the 50-meter tall rocket and the 2.2-tonne satellite onboard will be carried during the countdown," Satish said.

Readiness of the ground stations at Sriharikota, Biak in Indonesia and the master control facility at Hasan in Karnataka, about 180 km from here, will also be tested by the space scientists and engineers simultaneously.