Prime Minister Narendra Modi will witness the launch lift off of the Indian Space Research Organization's (ISRO's) PSLV C23 on Monday morning.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will carry a French Earth observation satellite along with four other satellites from Singapore, Canada and Germany from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh. The countdown for the launch began on Saturday and the launch is expected to lift off shortly before 10 a.m.
On Sunday, the Prime Minister made a brief stopover in Chennai before moving onto Sriharikota.
He was received by the Governor of Tamil Nadu, K. Rosaiah, and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, J. Jayalalithaa. He later had a courtesy meeting with Jayalalithaa before leaving for Sriharikota.
This will be the fourth fully commercial launch of the PSLV that is likely to establish to the world India's potential of competing in the global multi-billion dollar lucrative commercial space launch market.
The launch was originally fixed for 9.49 a.m. on Monday, but has been rescheduled for 9.52 a.m. due to the probability of space debris movement during the launch window.
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ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan was earlier quoted by a television channel, as saying that the PSLV mission would be used to launch the SPOT-7 satellite, an advanced Earth observation satellite built by Airbus Defence and Space, France.
It is expected that during his first visit to the spaceport at Sriharikota, Prime Minister Modi will be briefed on many novel Indian space-related developments.
