Country's first dedicated satellite for astronomy research, Astrosat, will be launched from Sriharikota at 10 AM today. 50-hour countdown for its launch, which began at 8 AM on Saturday, is progressing smoothly. Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C30 will carry Astrosat into a low earth equatorial orbit after its take off from the first launch pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. <br/><br/>The launch vehicle will also carry six small satellites from different countries. Specialty of Astrosat is its ability to observe celestial bodies like distant stars and cosmic X-Ray sources in different wavelengths simultaneously.<br/><br/>AIR correspondent reports, Astrosat is India's major scientific mission after the highly acclaimed Chandrayaan-I and Mangalyaan. It is the country's first dedicated multi-wavelength space observatory. Its sophisticated payloads such as the telescopes, sky monitors, mirrors and special imager have been developed jointly by ISRO and many prominent research institutions like the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research and the Inter University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics. <br/><br/>Though India has ground based radio telescopes for decades, scientists say, the scope of research on high frequency waves being emitted by distant stars and cosmic X-Ray sources will be made easier with her own telescope in space, a demand being met with the launch of Astrosat. Today's launch would also mark the first ever commercial flight of US satellites from India, four of which share the boardroom of the PSLV-C30. A Canadian and an Indonesian payload would also be the co-passengers of Astrosat.