It was a ‘grand’ exclusive commercial success for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), which successfully launched Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C23 with five foreign satellites, into space on Monday morning.

This has strengthened India’s space mission capability to launch foreign satellites on a commercial basis.

At 9.52, the ISRO’s power horse PSLV roared into the cloudy sky from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch was delayed by three minutes to avoid space debris.

PM ecstatic Prime Minister Narendra Modi was ecstatic after watching the launch (his first after taking over as PM) from the mission control room along with senior ISRO officials, including Chairman K Radhakrishnan.

Andhra Pradesh Governor ESL Narasimhan and State Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu were present during the launch.

The rocked carried a 714-kg French Earth Observation Satellite SPOT-7 as the main payload. This satellite was built by Airbus Defence and Space, a leading European space technology company.

This satellite will be placed diametrically opposite to SPOT-6 and will form part of the existing observation constellation.

It also carried Germany’s 14-kg AISAT (a sea monitoring system), NLS7.1 and NLS7.2 of Canada (each weighing 15 kg for accurate position control system) and Singapore’s 7-kg VELOX-1 (for in-house design of image sensor).

ISRO has so far launched 35 foreign satellites.

The first launch was on May 26, 1999 when PSLV-C2 put the German satellite DLR-RUBSAT into orbit. The last launch was that of Strand-1 of the UK by PSLV-C20 on February 25, 2013.

Today’s five satellites were launched under commercial arrangements that Antrix Corporation Ltd has entered with the foreign agencies. Antrix, the commercial arm of the Department of Space, undertakes a number of initiatives to globally market space products and services.

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