The PSLV-C11 rocket carrying the Chandrayaan-1 lifts off from the second launch-pad at SHAR
The Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SHAR) (सतीश धवन अंतरिक्ष केंद्र) is the launch centre for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It is located in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, India and is also referred to as Sriharikota. The centre is located 80 kilometres north of Chennai in South India. It was originally called Sriharikota Range, and was sometime known as Sriharikota Launching Range. The centre was renamed to its present name 2002 after the death of ISRO's former chairman Satish Dhawan. The space centre has kept the title SHAR during these name changes.
The SHAR facility now consists of two launch pads, with the second built recently. The second launch pad was used for launches beginning in 2005 and is a universal launch pad, accommodating all of the launch vehicles used by ISRO. The two launch pads will allow multiple launches in a single year, which was not possible earlier.
India's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan 1 launched from the centre at 6:22 AM IST on October 22, 2008.
1996: Third developmental launch of PSLV with IRS-P3 successful (March).
1997: First operational launch of PSLV with IRS-1D successful (September).
1999: IRS-P4 (OCEANSAT), launched by Polar Satellite launch vehicle (PSLV-C2) along with Korean KITSAT-3 and German DLR-TUBSAT from Sriharikota (26 May1999).
2007: SRE-1 splashed down in the Bay of Bengal on January 22, 2007 and was successfully recovered by the Indian Coast Guard and Indian Navy, making India one of the few countries to have re-entry technology.
2007: PSLV-C8 successfully places an Italian satellite, AGILE into its orbit on April 23.
22 October2008 - Chandrayaan-1 (Moon Vehicle) spacecraft launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, SHAR, Sriharikota by PSLV-XL (PSLV-C11) in an highly elliptical initial orbit (IO) with perigee (nearest point to the Earth) of about 257 km and an apogee (farthest point from the Earth) of about 22,858 km.
After a few revolutions in the initial orbit, the spacecraft's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) firing would be done, when the spacecraft is near perigee, to raise the apogees to 37,421 km and 73,925 km respectively.
Subsequently, the LAM is fired to take the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft to extremely high elliptical orbit with apogees 199,277 km and 269,201 km. Later the spacecraft would be raised to an orbit with 1,019 km perigee and 386,194 km apogee.
Once the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft reaches the vicinity of the Moon, the spacecraft is slowed down sufficiently so as to enable the gravity of the moon capture it into an elliptical orbit (LC). After a careful and detailed observation the height of the spacecraft's orbit will be finally lowered to its intended 100 km circular polar orbit. Following this, the Moon Impact Probe (MIP) would be ejected from Chandrayaan-1 to impact on the lunar surface. Afterwards, all the scientific instruments/payloads are commissioned sequentially and Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft explores the Moon with its array of instruments for two years.
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