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India on Wednesday added yet another feather to its cap in space techonology when its 10th Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle put four satellites into orbit.
The PSLV-C7 blasted off majestically into space at 9.24 am from the spaceport at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, 160 km from Chennai.
The successful launch comes six months after GSLV-FO2 broke up, deviating from its path 65 seconds after take off.
PSLV C-7 carries four satellites -- the 680 kg Indian Remote Sensing Satellite CARTOSAT-2, the 550 kg Space Capsule Recovery Equipment, Indonesia's LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's 6 kg nanosatellite, PEHUENSAT-1.
CARTOSAT-2 is the 12th in the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite series and carries a state-of-the-art panchromatic camera, with a spatial resolution of 1 mt and a solid state recorder with a 64 giga byte storage capacity.
Data from this satellite will find application in cartography at the cadastral level, urban and rural infrastructure development and management, apart from Land Information System and Geographical Information System.
CARTOSAT-2 was placed in a 635 km high polar Sun Synchronous Orbit.
SRE-1, a joint effort between the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre and ISRO Satellite Centre, is intended to demonstrate the technology of orbiting platform for performing experiments in microgravity conditions and recovering the same after completion of the experiments.
The SRE-1 takes India into an elite club of countries that have satellite re-entry technology. The space flight will stay in orbit for between 13 and 30 days and is expected to splash down into the Bay of Bengal for recovery.
It will provide important technology inputs in navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase, hypersonic aero-thermodynamics for reusable thermal protection system, recovery through deceleration and floatation, besides acquisition of basic technology for reusable launch vehicles.
LAPAN-TUBSAT is an Indonesian earth observation satellite and a technology demonstrator for control systems. It carries two Charge Coupled Device cameras with a ground resolution of 5 mt and 200 mt respectively.
It also carries an experiment for message store and forward system.
The Argentinian nanosatellite PEHUENSAT-1 will serve the educational, technological and scientific fields. It is intended to gain experience for designing more complex missions.