India places record ten satellites in orbit

Sriharikota, (Andhra Pradesh), Apr 28 : The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) surged into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here this morning and placed as many as 10 satellites in orbit.

All the 10 satellites were placed in the desired orbit within 20 minutes from the lift off and the mission was complete in 24 minutes.

The mission, undertaken by Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), included country's latest remote sensing satellite CARTOSAT-2A along with Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) built by the ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore and eight nano satellites from different countries.

The 690 kg CARTOSAT-2A carries panchromatic camera that have image resolution of one metre. The images will be used in making maps, which will provide valuable information in planning urban infrastructure, rural roads, ring roads, and settlements. They will also be used in defence applications.

The images sent down by the 83 kg IMS-1, which is also a remote-sensing satellite can be used to monitor features on the earth such as its vegetation and water bodies.

This is the first time that ISRO placed as many as 10 satellites using a single rocket, although the PSLV has successfully launched three satellites each on May 26, 1999 and October 22, 2001 and four satellites on January 10, 2007.

Out of the eight nano satellites, six are clustered together and are named NLS-4. The University of Toronto, Canada, has developed the NLS-4. It comprises Cute 1.7 and SEEDS, both built in Japan while the remaining four - CAN-X2, AAUSAT-II, COMPASS-1 and Delphi-C3 -were built in Canada, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands respectively.

The other two nano satellites, NLS-5 and Rubin-8, belong to the University of Toronto and Germany.

ANI