On Gandhi's birthday, India ships Mars spacecraft to launch site

Several Indian news sites posted a press wire article this morning indicating that India's Mars Orbiter Mission departed its assembly and testing facility in Bangalore today and is now on the way to the coastal launch site, the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, a journey of about 400 kilometers.

My favorite detail from the story: that they selected Gandhi Jayanti day -- the national holiday celebrating Mahatma Gandhi's birthday, like President's Day here in the U.S. -- for the trip, "as traffic would be less."

The launch is currently scheduled for Monday, October 28 at 16:14:45 Indian standard time (3:44:45 PDT / 10:44:45 UTC).