Space odyssey: Countdown for Mission 101 ends today

BY the time you are reading this, if all parameters have worked well, India will have achieved the significant milestone with the Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO's) 101st mission, having launched a more sophisticated eye in the sky — the earth observing satellite EOS-09 — on board the launcher PSLV-C61 from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, at 5.59 am on Sunday.

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The mission will place the EOS-09 into a Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit (SSPO) at an altitude of about 530 Km. SSPO is a polar orbit ensuring that the satellite remains in the same position relative to the sun and passes over a specific point on Earth at the same local time of day, consistently. The mission carries a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) payload, capable of providing images for various earth observation applications under all-weather condit