Cyclone Helen will spare Sriharikota space centre

The Satish Dhawan Space Centre-launch pad of the Indian Space Research Orgnisation in Sriharikota- is expected to be safe from the tropical storm Helen. Though, good rain and winds will be experienced in the Island after the cyclone makes landfall, chances of flooding are very rare.

Cyclone Helen is moving in a west north-west direction at the moment and will travel westward while landing near Ongole, 243 km away from Sriharikota. This is probably why the impact of the cyclone would be less here.

Sriharikota is a spindle-shaped island on the East Coast of Andhra Pradesh and falls in Nellore district. The island is affected by both south-westerly and north-easterly monsoons, but here, heavy rain mostly occurs during October and November. Sriharikota receives 253 and 287 mm of average rain in October and November respectively.

The centre was recently in news for launching of Mangalyan, India's coveted space mission to Mars on November 5. The mission was first slated for launch on October 28 but was delayed for a week as two ships meant for monitoring the mission from Fiji in the West Pacific failed to reach the designated spots due to bad weather in the Bay of Bengal owing to cyclone Phailin.