Emily LakdawallaOct 20, 2008

Watch the Chandrayaan-1 launch live on the Internet!

India's space agency, ISRO, has announced that they will be hosting a live webcast of the launch of Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter, beginning on October 22 at 05:50 Indian Standard Time, which is 00:20 UTC, or October 21 at 17:20 my time. (Yes, India is one of the few countries in the world whose standard time is offset from most other nations' standard time by a non-integer number of hours; click here for a conversion to your local time zone.) I don't have a link to the webcast itself, but it should be reachable from the ISRO home page.

Helpful readers have been sending me some links to more information about this mission, including a detailed "brochure" about the Chandrayaan-1 mission, its hardware, and its science goals, and also a photo gallery with some MUCH better pictures than I'd seen before (though there isn't much in the way of caption information, sadly). Here's Chandrayaan-1 on its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, making the slow journey to the seaside launch pad at Sriharikota, I think on October 18:

Chandrayaan-1 journeys to the launch pad

ISRO

Chandrayaan-1 journeys to the launch pad
Chandrayaan-1 on the launch pad

ISRO

Chandrayaan-1 on the launch pad
Integration of the Impact Probe onto Chandrayaan-1

ISRO

Integration of the Impact Probe onto Chandrayaan-1
Chandrayaan-1 undergoing prelaunch testing

ISRO

Chandrayaan-1 undergoing prelaunch testing

I'll be watching the launch for sure, and will keep posting updates!

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