By NNN-PTI,
Sriharikota, India : India today created history, launching ten satellites in one go with its Polar launch vehicle carrying the heaviest payload of 824 kg.
The ten-pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.
This is for the first time that ISRO has put ten satellites into orbit in a single launch.
A Russian rocket last year delivered 16 satellites in the outer space but the Russian launch vehicle carried a lesser payload of only around 300 kg.
However, ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair told reporters that Russia had tried to launch 13 satellites in a single launch.
“We have showed the world we can have multiple launches carried out in a precise manner. We have set a record. Only Russia had so far tried to launch 13 satellites in a single launch and I am not sure whether that was successful,” he told reporters here.
He said there was some anxious moments due to some unusual weather condition over the Bay of Bengal off Andaman coast. “Only at 11 pm last night we decided to go ahead with the launch.” Nair expressed happiness that all the mission objectives were achieved with precision and all systems functioned very well.