India is to launch a mini Hubble-type space observatory, a major step forward for the emerging power’s increasingly capable space programme.

Last year, the south Asian nation became the first country to launch a successful Mars orbital mission on its first attempt. At £50m, the robotic probe, which is still circling the red planet, cost a fraction of earlier similar missions by the US, Russia and European countries.

The new observatory, dubbed the AstroSat, is due to be launched from the country’s main space centre at Sriharikota in southern India on Monday. If it is successful, India will be the first state in the developing world to have placed its own telescope in space.

“This is the first time we are launching a dedicated astronomy mission,” said K Suryanarayana Sarma, project director of AstroSat at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

“This is a unique mission because … we have a very wide band of astronomical observation with sophisticated instruments with good resolution and specifications,” Sarma said.

First conceived in 1996, the project was given the green light in 2004. It is believed to have cost about £35m.

One of the reasons for the decade-long delay is the complexities of one specific instrument, a telescope using x-rays that has 320 aluminium mirrors that need to be positioned with extreme accuracy. The instrument was developed in collaboration with the University of Leicester in the UK.

Some commentators have questioned comparisons with the Hubble, launched by Nasa in 1990, which has become known for spectacular photographs of events in deep space.

“Calling [the] AstroSat ‘India’s Hubble’ will imply that ISRO has reached that level of engineering capability when it has not. And making that reference repeatedly will only foster complacency about defining the scale and scope of future missions,” wrote Vasudevan Mukunth, on Indian news website The Wire last week.

As well as being 10 times smaller than the Hubble, the AstroSat has a more limited lifespan of five years. This has however some advantages.

“We intend a mission life of five years for the AstroSat. So the question of repairs, like the ones done by astronauts on the Hubble, doesn’t arise,” said Deviprasad Karnik, an ISRO spokesman.

Indian scientists say their observatory has an unprecedented array of telescopes that will allow simultaneous data collection through different means. The mission will also be the first time the country will launch US satellites. The launch comes on the day Narendra Modi, the prime minister, is due to meet Barack Obama during a trip to the US.

The successful launch of India’s Mars orbiter last year came just days before Modi travelled to the US on his first trip after a landslide electoral victory. It led TV bulletins and filled front pages. The project aims to study the surface and mineral composition of Mars, and scan its atmosphere for methane, a chemical strongly tied to life on Earth.

Modi wants to establish India as a bigger player in the £200bn space technology market, against stiff competition from neighbouring China with its bigger launchers.

The Indian prime minister toured Silicon Valley this weekend, meeting CEOs of major tech firms and addressing a rally of Indian Americans in a bid to promote India as a nation of technological innovation and capabilities.

“We have never launched an American satellite [before] … Politically and scientifically, India launching four American satellites marks the biggest step yet in Indo-US space collaboration,” said Srinivas Laxman, a space science expert.

Preparations to put an Indian in space are under way though there has been “no approval from the government for the mission itself”, said Karnik.

“We are preparing the physical technology. [A] man in space mission is not on the agenda at the moment,” he added.