CHENNAI: The countdown has begun at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh for the launch of Israeli satellite Polaris on Monday morning by a “core-alone” configuration of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

This is the second-time that a “core-alone” PSLV configuration will put a satellite in orbit. In April 2007, PSLV C-8 successfully put Italian satellite Agile in orbit.

In normal configuration, the four-stage PSLV has strap-on boosters around its first stage.

Weighing 295 tonnes and standing 44 metres tall, it can put satellites weighing up to 1,200 kg in low-earth orbit.

In a “core-alone,” the six strap-on booster motors are removed and the “main PSLV” looks like “a lean and hungry vehicle.” Weighing only 230 tonnes, it can deploy satellites weighing up to 600 kg in orbit.

Polaris, a radar-imaging, remote-sensing satellite, was mated with the vehicle a week ago. It weighs about 300 kg.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) was to launch it in September 2007, but postponed it to October.

At that time, the “core-alone” vehicle that was assembled at the Mobile Service Tower, for some mysterious reason, was dismantled. The satellite too was “boxed up” in a container.

Top ISRO officials then claimed that the Israelis had some “technical difficulties” with the satellite.

There were news reports that ISRO “abandoned” the launch under pressure from the United States, as it did not want ISRO to get a slice of the launch market. Gulf countries too reportedly put pressure on India not to launch the satellite.

The Mission Director is George Koshy and the Vehicle Director C. Venugopal. Scientists from the Israel Space Agency are at Sriharikota.

Antrix Corporation Limited, marketing agency of the Department of Space, will receive money from the Israel Space Agency for launching Polaris.

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