NELLORE: President Pratibha Devisingh Patil on Monday unveiled a new rocket launch facility and its mission control centre at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in the district.After dedicating the facility to the nation, Patil witnessed the simulation of a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket launch in the control centre and interacted with space scientists, including the Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan. Speaking on the occasion, the president was all praise for ISRO for its successful missions and felt that utilising the organisation's research for the benefit of society should be an important objective of science and technology. Patil also visited the first launch pad to witness the assembly activities of PSLVC19 scheduled for launch early this year.The Mission Control Centre, situated six km away from the launch complex, will monitor and conduct launch operations during the precountdown and countdown phases until the injection of the satellite into orbit. The launch preparations on the vehicle will be monitored using a multichannel closed circuit television system.The President also presented ISRO awards for the year 2008 and 2009. The lifetime achievement award for contribution to the Indian space programme was conferred on former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan. Governor ESL Narasimhan, minister of state for personnel V Narayanasamy, SHAR director MC Dathan and other officials were present.
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