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.

Lok Sabha Speaker, Somnath Chatterjee, in a statement in the House, expressed confidence that with "one more feather in its cap," ISRO would soon emerge as one of the major players in the international commercial satellite launch market.

ISRO has further plans in store. It is all set to launch Chandrayaan 1, the moon mission, in the third quarter of this year.

Confirming this, ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said, "Our next mission will be Chandrayan for which all instruments are ready and being tested." He said that the mission would place "a modest 500 kilo satellite" on an elliptical satellite orbit around the moon for mapping its terrain and mineral content.

As for its 'manned' mission, ISRO is waiting for the government's nod, after which it will take seven years for India's first manned mission to take place.

"The mission would involve sending a crew of two astronauts on a low earth orbit using a GSLV launcher. Safety and reliability of the crew module and its re-entry into the earth's atmosphere are crucial issues that have to be addressed. Also, the module has to be under complete radio visibility throughout its orbit," said K. Radhkarishnan, director of Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, which is designing the spacecraft for the manned mission.

The manned flight would be preceded by three unmanned flights to test the efficacy and success rate of the mission.