Chandrayaan mated with launch vehicle at Sriharikota

Bangalore, Oct 17 (IANS) India's first unmanned lunar spacecraft Chandrayaan-1 was mated with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C11) after completing all mandatory tests in the assembly building at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, about 80 km from Chennai, a top space official said here Friday.

'The heat shield closing operations around the 1,380-kg spacecraft have been completed. Integrated testing of the 316-tonne launch vehicle is in progress,' Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told IANS.

All the operations are progressing satisfactorily for the launch of PSLV-C11 Chandrayaan mission Oct 22 at 06:20 a.m.

'The 52-hour countdown is expected to commence in the early hours of Oct 20,' Satish added.

The launch vehicle with the spacecraft atop will be moved to the second launch pad after all the tests are completed.

The spacecraft has been fitted with the 11 scientific instruments, including six foreign payloads and five Indian devices for the two-year exploration of the moon.