ISRO crosses 200 mark in launching foreign satellites

Around 16 minutes after lift-off, the rocket placed Cartosat-2 Series Satellite in orbit.

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), June 23: With 29 foreign satellites into orbit on Friday, the Indian space agency crossed the double century mark in launching foreign satellites belonging to overseas customers.

ISRO successfully launched Cartosat-2 series satellite along with 30 co-passenger satellites on Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 09.29am.

The rocket's main cargo was India's 712 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation with a design life of five years. One of the 30 co-passenger satellites was an Indian nano satellite NIUSAT.

The rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle's (PSLV) put into orbit 29 nano satellites from 14 countries - Austria, Belgium, Britain, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia and the US - on Friday.

Around 16 minutes after lift-off, the rocket placed Cartosat-2 Series Satellite in orbit.

ISRO started launching foreign satellites in 1999. Excluding Friday's launch ISRO has launched 180 foreign satellites, said S. Rakesh the Chairman-cum-Managing Director of Antrix Corp, the commercial arm of ISRO.

IANS