New Delhi - India on Wednesday launched a rocket carrying three satellites into space, officials said.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C-16 took off without incident from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota, an island off south-eastern India, officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation said.
“I am extremely happy to declare the PSLV C-16 Resourcesat-2 mission successful,” the space agency's chairman, K Radhakrishnan, said.
The 1,206-kilogram Resourcesat-2 satellite, made by India and including components from the Canadian aerospace company Com Dev International, is to complement the maritime navigation functions of its predecessor Resourcesat-1.
Over its predicted lifetime of two years, Resourcesat-2 was also to map forest cover, track glaciers and record agriculture-related imagery.
The rocket's 1,404-kilogramme payload also included the 92-kilogram Indo-Russian satellite Youthsat for stellar and atmospheric studies and the 106-kilogramme satellite X-sat, built by Singapore-based Nanyang Technological University. The X-sat is to take images of Earth, process them and transmit the enhanced images back to Earth.
Wednesday's successful launch, the PSLV's 18th mission, came after two versions of a larger rocket developed by the space agency - the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle - fell into the Bay of Bengal soon after takeoff.
Estimated to cost more than 20 million dollars, the 44-meter PSLV weighs 295 tons and its four stages are powered by solid and liquid propellants. - Sapa-dpa