:oIo: The news is covered by a DEFENCE correspondent. DSO is mostly associated wif defence R&D. So u belif the multi million $$ satellite is jas to measure soil erosion n environment? IT'S A FOCKING SPY SATELLITE, SPY ON U, SPY ON ME !!!! Parl dissolve so cant ask the evil PAP ministers !!!
ST Apr 20, 2011
S'pore's first satellite to launch today
It'll blast off on Indian rocket and take photos to measure soil erosion
By Jermyn Chow,
DEFENCE CORRESPONDENT
SINGAPORE will finally head to space this afternoon, after a series of stops and starts that lasted more than four years.
The Republic's first locally-built micro-satellite will blast off on an Indian rocket at 12.42pm, Singapore time, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India, barring last-minute hitches.
The 105kg refrigerator-size X-Sat will be one of three satellites riding on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C16, which is owned by the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro). The other two satellites are built by Russia and India.
Isro said in a statement that a high-level panel, dubbed the Launch Authorisation Board, met last Saturday to review the 'readiness of the launch vehicle, spacecraft systems and ground stations'.
Two days later, the panel gave the green light for a 54-hour countdown to today's launch. During this period, final checks are carried out on the rocket, including making sure its tanks are filled up with liquid propellant and the radar system and communications network are working properly, Isro said.
Responding to queries from The Straits Times, a spokesman for Nanyang Technological University (NTU), which collaborated with the
DSO National Laboratories to build and design the satellite from scratch, confirmed today's launch.
He said NTU and Isro scientists and engineers have been working closely in the run-up to the launch and stringent checks have been carried out, and that 'the team now awaits the launch of X-Sat into space with great excitement'.
X-Sat will orbit for three years at a height of 800km and take photographs
to measure soil erosion and environmental changes on earth. It will then relay data to a ground station at NTU. Images will also be beamed back to the National University of Singapore's Centre for Remote Imaging, Sensing and Processing.
X-Sat's launch will make Singapore one of the first South-east Asian countries to have a locally designed and built satellite in space.
Today's launch has been a long time coming. Work began about nine years ago, with a reported plan to launch in 2007 and last year. Those deadlines came and went, with no reasons given for the delay. Experts estimate the hold-up will have caused the cost of the X-Sat to soar from $10 million to over $40 million.
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