New Delhi - India successfully launched one indigenous satellite and six small European satellites in a single mission on Wednesday, officials said. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched the rocket carrying the satellites from the Satish Dhawan spaceport in Sriharikota city, 90 kilometres north of the southern city of Chennai, a month after it aborted its first lunar mission.
The satellites were placed in their prescribed orbits within 20 minutes after the launch at 11:51 am (0621 GMT), ISRO said.
"The plot-boards clearly indicate that the satellites have been placed into the desired orbits at the exact time," ISRO chief G Madhavan Nair announced.
"This is a fantastic achievement. Once again we have proved that we can do the job precisely," he said, congratulating the scientists.
The Oceansat-2 satellite, which is India's 16th remote sensing satellite, will study oceans and climate.
The 960-kilogram satellite which will orbit 720 kilometres above the earth will help in identifying potential fishing zones by monitoring ocean temperature and algal blooms, the ISRO said.
It will also be used for monitoring sea conditions, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies.
Besides the Oceansat, the ISRO also launched six "nano" satellites, four from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey, weighing a total of 20 kilograms. They were launched under a commercial agreement.
An in-orbit replacement to Oceansat-1, which has completed 10 years of its space journey, Oceansat-2 would have a mission life of five years, ISRO spokesman S Satish told reporters.
The Polar Launch Satellite Vehicle has made 15 consecutive successful launches, he said.
Wednesday's launch boosted the morale of Indian space scientists after the agency terminated its moon mission last month.
ISRO chief Nair said the mission was a "100-per-cent success" as it had completed most of its objectives and collected "almost all the data" for which it was designed.
India has emerged as one of the few players in the multi-billion-dollar space launch market more three decades after the country launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta, in 1975.
In 2007, ISRO successfully placed an Italian astronomical satellite into orbit, marking India's entry into an exclusive group of nations conducting commercial space launches.
The following year, India successfully placed 10 satellites, including eight non-Indian ones, in a single mission. It also launched an Israeli spy satellite into orbit the same year.
