Roundup: India launches its first space telescope

India became the first country in the developing world on Monday to put a space observatory into space.

Astrosat, dubbed as the country's "mini-Hubble telescope," was launched on board the indigenous Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which also carried six foreign satellites, including four from the United States, from Sriharikota in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh at 10 a.m. local time (0430 GMT).

Barely 25 minutes after its launch, the state-owned Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) announced that the 1,500-kg telescope and the six satellites were successfully put into orbit at an altitude of 650 km above the Earth.

"PSLV-C30 successfully launches ASTROSAT into the orbit," the space agency, which made the telescope, tweeted.

With the launch, India has now joined the elite club of the United States, European Union, Russia and Japan who have their own telescope in space.

The six other satellites include four small LEMUR satellites launched for a San Francisco-based company, and a Canadian and an Indonesian small Earth observing satellite -- all on the 31st flight of the PSLV rocket, which has had 30 consecutive successful flights till date.

The telescope, which has a mission life of five years, will be used to study black holes and analyze how stars and galaxies are actually born and how they ultimately die.

Astrosat will observe the universe through optical, ultraviolet, low and high energy X-ray components of the electromagnetic spectrum, whereas most other scientific satellites are capable of observing through a narrow wavelength band, according to the ISRO.

"The global astronomy community is looking forward to this launch as no other global space-based telescope has comparable capabilities," Kiran Kumar, the chief of the Indian space agency, said on Sunday as the countdown began for the launch. Endi