Bangalore: The final countdown began today (Sep 19, 2004) for the launch of EDUSAT, India's exclusive satellite for educational services, by Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F01) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) at the spaceport of Sriharikota, about 80 km North of Chennai.

Preparations for the launch of EDUSAT, scheduled at 16:01 (IST) (Sep 20, 2004), are proceeding "smoothly" at the SDSC, on the Eastern coast of Andhra Pradesh, the Bangalore-headquartered Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said in a statement in Bangalore.

The launch rehearsal for the "first operational flight" of GSLV was carried out on Thursday last (Sep16, 2004), it said. The final countdown began at 1 am this morning.

The 1,950-kg EDUSAT, intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite based distance education system in the country, will be fired into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) by the GSLV rocket and from GTO, it would reach the Geostationary Orbit (GSO) at 36,000 kms above the earth.

The third flight of GSLV-F0-1, its first operational mission, will fire EDUSAT, built with a mission life of seven years, and place it in the same orbit as Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3C communication satellites.

In the two developmental test flights of the homegrown GSLV rocket conducted in April 2001 and May 2003, it put into orbit GSAT-1 and GSAT-2 satellites into GTO.

GSLV-F0-1 is a 49-metre three-stage rocket, consisting of a core motor with a 138 tonne of solid propellant and four strap-on motors in the first stage; 39 tonnes of liquid fuel in the second stage; and 12.5 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in the third cryogenic stage.