Chennai, Oct 20 (IANS) M.Y.S. Prasad, associate director, Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, has something common with Telugu movie stars Chiranjeevi and Krishnam Raju. All three are from Mogaltur village in West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh.

While Chiranjeevi and Krishnam Raju are movie stars turned politicians, Prasad sends rockets towards the stars.

As the man in charge of launch operations for India's first lunar mission that blasts off Wednesday, Prasad, 55, is now busy checking everything is in place, as the final countdown ticks on.

He is also responsible for launch pad preparation and filling of the liquid propulsion fuel that will send the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) into space, carrying aloft India's lunar orbiter Chandrayaan.

"Out of my 33 years with ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation), I have worked nearly 20 years in developing launch vehicles," he told IANS from Sriharikota, India's spaceport, 80 km from here.

He was part of the team that successfully launched India's first satellite vehicle SLV3.

As part of the rocket team, Prasad has contributed significantly in the areas of avionics systems, payload augmentation and interfacing and ground station networks.

"We have reduced the inert weight of PSLV, thereby augmenting its fuel and payload capability," he said.

He played a major role in introducing key technologies into ISRO's launch vehicles, mainly in Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV), to make them reliable and robust.

"In a rocket the critical period is the liftoff and the first 20 km when the vehicle gathers momentum to escape the earth's gravitational pull," he said.