Five satellites, including the advanced high resolution cartography satellite Cartosat-2B, were placed in orbit Monday after India's space agency ISRO successfully launched its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket from here.
"I am extremely happy to say PSLV 16 was a successful flight. All the satellites were injected precisely," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said, reported IANS.
ISRO's 230 tonne PSLV - standing 44 metres tall - soared towards the heavens from the spaceport here, about 80 km north of Chennai. The five satellites together weigh 819 kg.
Apart from its main cargo - the Cartosat-2B weighing 694 kg - the other satellites that the rocket put into orbit are the Algerian remote sensing satellite Alsat-2A (116 kg), two nano satellites (NLS 6.1 AISSAT-1 weighing 6.5 kg built by the University of Toronto, Canada and one kg NLS 6.2 TISAT built by University of Applied Sciences, Switzerland) and STUDSAT, a pico satellite weighing less than one kg, built jointly by students of seven engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.
Twenty minutes after blast off, the rocket first released the Cartosat-2B followed by Alsat-2A and the three small satellites.
This was the first successful launch after Radhakrishnan took over as ISRO chairman last year.
"Two more launches are planned in three months time. One will be PSLV and another will GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle)," he said.
Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia, who was present at the launch, congratulated the ISRO scientists on the "perfect launch" and said: "ISRO makes the country proud."
Immediately after the ejection of the satellites, the Spacecraft Control Centre at Bangalore with the help of ISTRAC (ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command) Network of stations there and at Lucknow, Mauritius, Bearslake in Russia, Biak in Indonesia and Svalbard in Sweden monitored their health.
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