The historic Mission to Mars will begin today, as PSLV C-25, carrying Mangalyaan, will be launched at 2:38 pm from the first launch pad of the Sathish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
ISRO officials said that all the vehicle systems have been switched-on for the final eight and a half hour count down starting at 06.08 this morning. The rocket is kept ready, even as the 56 and a half hour long count down is in progress. The Mobile service tower is being withdrawn slowly from the pedestal of the launch pad.
Scientists at ISRO are on the job checking out the finer details as per schedule.
PSLV C-25 will put Mangalyaan weighing 1,340 kilograms in the earth orbit. To reach MARS, the spacecraft has to enter three phases, the earth centered phase, the helio centric phase and finally the Martian phase.
Our correspondent reports that Mangal Yan, the first inter-planatory mission to the red planet is primarily a technological machine. It has been configured to carry out observations of the physical features of the Mars and also to carry out a limited study of the Martian atmosphere. The satellite has five pay load to measure the gases available in the planet, the methane concentration, to analyse details of the planet with the available photographs, to take photos on surface features and also to learn about the weather changes and finally to obeserve the presence of minerals and soil type of the planet.