Live coverage of Indian Mars Orbiter launch commences 19:30 AEDT tonight 5 Nov 2013

[gary]

Live coverage of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) Mars Orbiter Mission
launch will commence today at 14:00 Indian Standard Time (IST) which corresponds to
08:30 UTC and 19:30 AEDT (NSW, Vic, Tas).

It will stream from the ISRO website here -
http://www.isro.org/

The launch itself is scheduled for 20:08 AEDT (14:38 IST).

The launch is from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh, located
on the coast of the Bay of Bengal on a piece of geography strikingly similar to
Merritt Island in Florida. (See Google Maps screenshots below)

Second stage propellant fueling operations have been completed.

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has four stages, stacked using alternate
solid and liquid propulsion. There have been 24 PSLV launches, 22 of which have
been successful.

[Larryp (Laurie)]

Thanks for the heads-up, Gary

[astroron (Ron)]

Nothing happening here yet, supposed to start the telecast at 18:00 AEST,not Daylight time.
Cheers

[gary]

Fourth stage achchacha! (waggles head).

[Octane (Humayun)]

There's been fascinating discussions about this launch on Facebook that I've picked up by reading comments made on posts by my Indian friends.

They are divided as to whether this is a good thing (for a developing nation to invest so incredibly heavily) or a waste of money (that could be better spent in immediacy to help the underprivileged).

Apparently the ISRO has put together an amazing instrument.

H