India successfully launches Indo-French, 6 foreign satellites

India's Polar rocket PSLV today successfully put into orbit seven satellites in the span of four minutes including a Indo-French oceanographic spacecraft that will study changes in the environment, completing its 22nd consecutive flawless launch.

After a textbook launch witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee here, Indian Space Research Organisation's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle(PSLV) placed into orbit in one single mission all the seven spacecraft -- Indo-French oceanographic study satellite 'SARAL' and six foreign mini and micro satellites.

The PSLV-C20 rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in clear weather at 6.01 pm at the end of the 59-hour countdown, marking the 103rd mission of ISRO and yet another testimony to India's Space prowess. In 2008, India successfully launched 10 satellites in a single mission, boosting its capabilities in space.

The lift-off, scheduled for 5.56 pm, was delayed by five minutes to avoid probability of collision with space debris, a normal cautionary step in a launch mission, ISRO sources said.

Soaring into clear weather, the 44.4 metre tall 230-tonne rocket, in its core alone variant, injected the 409 kg Indo-French satellite SARAL first into orbit about 18 minutes after the lift-off, followed by six other foreign satellites in about four minutes as the scientists broke into cheers.

India has reaffirmed its commercial launch capabilities with today's launch of SARAL's co-passengers -- SAPPHIRE and NEOSSat (Canada), AAUSAT3 (Denmark), micro satellites BRITE and UniBRITE from Austria and STRaND from United Kingdom, with a combined weight of 259.5 kg.

Congratulating scientists for the 'remarkable launch' and 'meticulously executed' mission, Mukherjee said the success has reaffirmed PSLV's efficacy, accuracy and reliability.

Reflecting its successful run in commercial operations, today's launch took the total number of overseas spacecraft put into orbit by ISRO to 35.

PSLV yet again proved itself as a reliable robust rocket completing its 22nd consecutive succesful launch in its 23 missions after the failure of the first one.

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