Countdown begins for Indo-French satellite launch

A countdown began Saturday for next week's launch of an Indian rocket that will carry seven satellites into orbit, including an Indo-French venture for studying the world's oceans, India's space agency said. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will blast off from the Sriharikota rocket launch centre on Monday, the Press Trust of India quoted an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation as saying. The Indo-French satellite is called "SARAL", short for Satellite with ARGOS and ALTIKA -- two climate tools developed for analysing ocean currents and sea surface heights by French space agency CNES. More

(Source: GlobalPost - Feb 25)