ISRO creates history, 10 satellites launched in one day

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The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) was launched at 9.23am from Sriharikota's spaceport off the country's eastern coast near the southern city of Chennai, to place 10 satellites into their orbits some 600 km above earth.

With this, India became the second country in the world to achieve the difficult feat, after Russia which had put into orbit 13 satellites in April 2007. But ISRO officials pointed out that the total weight of Russia's 13 was only 295 kg as against the 820 kg carried up by the four-stage PSLV on Monday. They added that NASA's attempt to do something similar had not been successful.

"The launches were smooth and we saw to it that it went according to plan," a senior ISRO official said.

The Indian-made Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite, which is fitted with a high resolution camera for recording clear images from space was the main satellite launched. The images and data from the satellite will be used to manage infrastructure and natural resources in the country, an official said.

The other launches included a mini satellite to provide technological data, which India plans to share with other countries, and eight other smaller research satellites belonging to Germany and Canada under a commercial agreement.

"These launches were very important to boost our space research capabilities," ISRO has stated.

India's President Pratibha Patil has lauded the scientists of ISRO for the record-breaking launch.

In a message to ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair and his team, Patil said that the launch had once again demonstrated the nation's capabilities in space launch technology.

Vice-President Hamid Ansari said the scientists had made the country proud with their extraordinary achievement which strengthened the country's remote sensing and other technological capabilities.

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