However, what makes this launch more important is that it is the first time a payload dedicated to the entire astronomy is being launched.
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ASTROSAT will be the first space observatory that will be operated by the Indian Space Research Organization.
The total cost of the ASTROSAT launch is Rs 178 crore.
Deviprasad Karnik, ISRO’s Public Relations director said that all preparations for the historic launch is in progress with the Mission Readiness Review Committee scheduled to meet up on September 24 to decide for the countdown process of the vehicle.
India’s observatory will be the fourth in space, after the Hubble, Russia’s Spektr R and Suzaku of Japan.
A collaboration of NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), the Hubble Space telescope has so far been making crucial contributions in the field of astronomy as it discovers new galaxies.
The United States satellites are the first from that country to be launched from India since the two countries signed a technology safeguards agreement in 2009.
The observatory is likely to study distant stars, dwarfs, planets and planetary motions. However, the mission’s main goal is to study the massive black hole believed to be existing at the core of the Milky Way.
“The mission envisages an earth orbiting scientific satellite with payloads capable of simultaneously observing the universe in the visible, ultraviolet and X-ray regions of the electromagnetic spectrum”, an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official was quoted as saying.
Astrosat, initially planned for 2005, has been delayed by a decade, as the scientific community struggled to build with precision the instruments needed for such operations.
On September 28 at 10 AM IST, along with the Astrosat, ISRO will launch six other worldwide satellites (4 from the U.S. , 1 from Indonesia and 1 from Canada) as well.
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Isro’s planetary exploratory group and the Indian Institute of Science have also contributed to the spacecraft, which carries four X-ray payloads, a UV telescope and a charge particle monitor.
