http://latestsnewsforyou.blogspot.com/2013/02/india-launches-satellites-with-france.html
Updated: 13:02, Tuesday February 26, 2013
India has successfully launched a satellite jointly built with France, along with six foreign satellites, in a single mission.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) took off a little after 6 pm on Monday (2330 AEDT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota, an island off southeastern India.
The satellites were placed in their prescribed orbits by the PSLV rocket some 18 minutes after the launch.
'I congratulate the ISRO for successfully executing this mission,' said President Pranab Mukherjee, who witnessed the first of 10 space missions planned by the Indian space agency for 2013.
'This mission epitomises the spirit of the Indo-French partnership, which the two nations have shared for decades.'
The rocket was carrying the 407-kilogram SARAL satellite, built in collaboration with France. It will study the world's oceans.
Two of the satellite's payloads, supplied by French National Space Agency CNES, will analyse ocean currents and sea surface heights, ISRO officials said.
Of the six other satellites, two each come from Canada and Austria, and one each from Denmark and Britain.
This was the 23rd consecutive launch for the 44-metre tall PSLV rocket and India's 101st space mission overall. Later this year, a similar rocket is expected to carry India's first mission to Mars.
India has emerged as one of the few players in the multibillion-dollar space launch market more three decades after the country launched its first satellite, Aryabhatta, in 1975.
In 2007, it successfully placed an Italian astronomical satellite into orbit, marking India's entry into an exclusive group of nations conducting commercial space launches.
skynews.com.au
