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New Delhi - India launched a rocket carrying five foreign satellites on Monday, as Premier Narendra Modi called on his country's scientists to develop their own satellite for South Asian nations.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar Launch Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) took off at 09:52 (04:22 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota, an island off south-eastern India.
The satellites, including from Germany and France, were successfully placed in their prescribed orbits 660km above the Earth, Modi said.
The main satellite on the rocket is the 714kg French earth-observation satellite SPOT-7. The others are the 14kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada, each weighing 15kg, and the 7kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.
"Today's satellites are all from developed nations France, Canada, Germany and Singapore. Truly, this is a global endorsement of India's space capabilities," Modi said.
"Today, I ask our space community to take up the challenge of developing a Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) satellite that we can dedicate to our neighbourhood as a gift," he said.
This was the first space mission under Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government, which came into power in May.
India has emerged as a significant player in the multibillion-dollar space launch market.
Monday's launch takes to 40 the number of foreign satellites India has put into orbit using its workhorse PSLV rocket since 1999, according to IANS news agency. Last February, India launched a satellite jointly built with France, carrying six foreign satellites.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's Polar Launch Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) took off at 09:52 (04:22 GMT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota, an island off south-eastern India.
The satellites, including from Germany and France, were successfully placed in their prescribed orbits 660km above the Earth, Modi said.
The main satellite on the rocket is the 714kg French earth-observation satellite SPOT-7. The others are the 14kg AISAT of Germany, NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada, each weighing 15kg, and the 7kg VELOX-1 of Singapore.
"Today's satellites are all from developed nations France, Canada, Germany and Singapore. Truly, this is a global endorsement of India's space capabilities," Modi said.
"Today, I ask our space community to take up the challenge of developing a Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation) satellite that we can dedicate to our neighbourhood as a gift," he said.
This was the first space mission under Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party government, which came into power in May.
India has emerged as a significant player in the multibillion-dollar space launch market.
Monday's launch takes to 40 the number of foreign satellites India has put into orbit using its workhorse PSLV rocket since 1999, according to IANS news agency. Last February, India launched a satellite jointly built with France, carrying six foreign satellites.
