Mars spacecraft integrated with rocket, ISO to announce launch date

Bangalore, Oct 21: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said Sunday the Mars spacecraft, whose launch has been delayed by almost a week, had been integrated with the launch vehicle.

"The integration is completed," spokesman Deviprasad Karnik said. ISRO had announced the decision to defer the launch of the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on board the PSLV-XL on Saturday.

A new launch date would be decided Tuesday, Karnik said. The initial launch window for the MOM was from October 28 to November 19.

ISRO decided to defer the launch due to bad weather in the South Pacific Ocean, where two Indian ship-borne terminals are moving slowly to reach their intended location, about 300 nautical miles from the Fiji Island.

The two ships - SCI Yamuna and SCI Nalanda - leased from Shipping Corporation of India to study the crucial period when the rocket ejects the spacecraft into space left for the South Pacific Ocean in mid-September from Visakhapatnam.

PTI