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India successfully launches 20 satellites with single rocket

Xinhua, June 22, 2016 Adjust font size:

India Wednesday launched with a rocket named Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) 20 satellites from the Sriharikota space center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, said officials.

The satellites launched included the country's earth observation satellite Cartosat, Google company Terra Bella's SkySat Gen2-1 and 18 other satellites.

The PSLV rocket standing 44.4 meters tall and weighing 320 tons, tore into the morning skies at 09:26 a.m. with a growl breaking free of the earth's gravitational pull. The 20 satellites weighed 1,288 kg.

The whole launch mission got over in around 26 minutes and officials declared it a success.

The images sent by Cartosat satellite will be useful for cartographic, urban, rural, coastal land use, water distribution and other applications, said local media Indo-Asian News Service.

According to Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), the 110 kg SkySat Gen2-1 belonging to Terra Bella, a Google company is a small earth imaging satellite capable of capturing sub-metre resolution imagery and high definition video, said the news agency.

It was the first time the ISRO is launching more than 10 satellites with a single rocket. Endit