India launches rocket carrying dozens of satellites

Published January 12, 2018
ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar Reddy gestures while meeting with the media after the Indian Space Research Organisation's earth observation satellite CARTOSAT-2 was launched at Satish Dawan space center in Sriharikota.─AFP
ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar Reddy gestures while meeting with the media after the Indian Space Research Organisation's earth observation satellite CARTOSAT-2 was launched at Satish Dawan space center in Sriharikota.─AFP

New Delhi on Friday launched a rocket carrying dozens of satellites from India and six other countries from its island space centre.

Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, A.S. Kiran Kumar, said the satellites successfully reached orbit after the polar satellite launch vehicle took off from Sriharikota, an island off Andhra Pradesh state in the country's southeast.

Apart from two Indian weather satellites, the rocket carried 28 micro and nano-satellites from Canada, Finland, France, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The ISRO's earth observation satellite CARTOSAT -2 launches at Satish dawan space center in Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh on January 12, 2018.─AFP
The ISRO's earth observation satellite CARTOSAT -2 launches at Satish dawan space center in Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh on January 12, 2018.─AFP

The lift-off was postponed by a minute because of fear of collision with space debris, the New Delhi Television news channel said. The last launch of India's first privately built satellite failed in August because of a heat shield problem.

Friday's launch is the latest in a string of successes for the Indian space agency.

Last June, India launched its heaviest-ever rocket it hopes will eventually be able to carry astronauts into space, a feat only Russia, the United States and China have achieved.

In 2013, India launched a space probe that has been orbiting Mars since September 2014.

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