All arrangements are in place to launch Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C21 from Sathish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 9.51 am today. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh will witness the historic event in the agency’s 100th mission from the spaceport.

PSLV C 21 will launch France’s earth observation satellite SPOT 6 alongwith a micro satellite from Japan. Both the satellites will be injected into a 655 kilometre polar orbit inclined at an angle of 98.23 degree to the equator.

With a lift off mass of 712 kilograms, Spot -6 is the heaviest satellite to be launched by PSLV for an international customer. The Japanese Micro satellite PROITERES carries an auxiliary payload and has a lift off mass of 15 kgs.

PSLV C21 is the 8th flight of PSLV in Core alone configuration without solid strap on motors.

The French observation satellite Spot 6 was built by Atrium SAS, a leading European Space technology company.

PROITERES is intended to study powered flight of a small satellite by an electric thruster and will observe Kasai District in Japan with a high resolution camera.