India's exclusive satellite for educational services -- Edusat -- was successfully placed into the Geostationary Orbit (GSO) on Monday.

The satellite was placed at 4.18 pm, a little over 17 minutes after the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F-01) carrying it was launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.

The GSLV-F-01, carrying the 1950-kg satellite, soared majestically into the sky from the space centre.

As the 49-metre-tall three-stage GSLV, weighing 414 tonnes, rose into the sky from this spindle-shaped island, off Bay of Bengal, there was jubilation all round with many scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation, hugging each other and clapping their hands.

After blast off the satellite was placed at the 36,000 km high Geostationary Orbit (GSO), by firing in stages its on-board Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM).

In GSO, the satellite will be co-located with Kalpana-1 and INSAT-3C satellites.

Built for a mission life of seven years, the Edusat is mainly intended to meet the demand for an interactive satellite-based distance education system for the country.

Designed as GSLV (F-01), this is the first operational (F-01) flight of the launch vehicle. In the first two 'deveopmental test flights', conducted in April 2001 and May last year, the GSLV had successfully placed GSAT-1 and GSAT-2 experimental satellites into Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit.

The launch vehicle consists of a core motor with 138 tonne of solid propellant and four strap-on motors in the first stage, 39 tonnes of hypergolic liquid propellants in the second and middle stage and 12.5 tonnes of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen in the third cryogenic stage, supplied by Russia.

The Edusat, which will provide a fillip to distance education in the entire country, has specially been configured for the audio-visual medium, employing digital interactive classroom and multimedia multicentric system.

The satellite will have multiple regional beams covering different parts of India -- five Ku-band transponders with spot beams covering northern, north-eastern, eastern, southern and western regions, a Ku-band transponder with its 'footprint' covering the Indian mainland region and six other C-band transponders with their 'footprints' covering India.