The 50-hour countdown for the launch of Astrosat, nation's first dedicated satellite for the study of astronomy began at 8 am today at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here.
The satellite will be put into a low-earth, equatorial orbit by the polar satellite launch vehicle PSLV-C30.
Astrostat will be launched at 10 am on September 28.
The mission life of Astrosat weighing 1513 kilograms is five years. It is aimed at studying black holes, neutron stars and extra-galactic systems by making observations in the optical, ultraviolet and X-Ray frequencies.
Its co-passengers on the PSLV-C30 would be six smaller satellites of foreign nations, including four from the United States and one each from Indonesia and Canada.
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