Chennai:  The first mission of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) this year is to put Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO’s) Microsat-R Satellite, an imaging satellite and Kalamsat, into the outerspace tonight.

The satellites will be carried onboard Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-44 which will be launched around 11.37 pm tonight from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The satellite would be placed within 15 minutes after take-off in a polar orbit 274 km away from Earth. This would start functioning at an altitude of 450km in about the 103th minute after lift-off.

According to sources,  Microsat-R and its payload come assembled from laboratories of the DRDO and is meant for military use. The satellite was “assembled outside and ISRO only interfaced it” with its own systems and the launch vehicle, just as it treats any customer satellite.

PSLV is a four stage launch vehicle with alternating solid and liquid stages. The PSLV with 2 strap-on configuration has been identified for this mission and the configuration is designated as PSLV-DL. PSLV-C44 is the first mission of PSLV-DL and is a new variant of PSLV.

In PSLV-C44, the fourth stage (PS4) of the vehicle will be moved to higher circular orbit so as to establish an orbital platform for carrying out experiments. Kalamsat, a student payload will be the first to use PS4 as orbital platform.