India to have dedicated commercial launch of PSLV on April 23

Bangalore, Apr 11 (UNI) Pitching hard for its pie in the global satellite launch market, India will on April 23 rpt April 23 launch PSLV-C8 carrying Italian experimental spacecraft Agile from the Satish Dhawan spaceport in Sriharikota.

The 360 kg Italian satellite, whose payload would study the gamma ray emission, would be the primary payload of the PSLV-C8 mission, with the launch vehicle not having the usual strap on motors. The launch was expected to cost ISRO Rs 70 crore, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told newspersons here today.

Declining to comment on the deal, he merely said ISRO would be meeting the cost of the launch and getting more from the mission.

Normally, such a launch in the global market would cost about 13,000 to 15,000 dollars per kg. ISRO would be getting 30 per cent more.

Dr Nair said the launch vehicle had been integrated with the launch pad and the satellite would be integrated with the vehicle in a few days.

This would be the seventh foreign satellite Indian launch vehicles would be carrying and the first dedicated launch for an outside customer as the other satellites were piggy back riders on Indian satellites.

He said that apart from Agile, PSLV C8 would also carry an experimental payload Advanced Avionic Module (AAM), weighing 185 kg, attached to the last stage. AAM was an advanced computer system expected to replace the existing system that had been functional for over ten years now. The new AAM would be the workhorse for the next 15 years.

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