Posted: Thu, May 5, 2005, 8:53 AM ET (1253 GMT)
An Indian rocket successfully launched a domestic remote sensing satellite Thursday. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) lifted off from a new pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India at 12:44 am EST (0444 GMT, 10:14 am local time) and placed the Cartosat-1 satellite into orbit 18 minutes later. The 1.5-ton spacecraft, built by the Indian space agency ISRO, is designed to produce stereo imagery of the Earth with resolutions of 2.5 meters per pixel for use in cartography. The PSLV also carried a small secondary payload, Hamsat; the 42.5-kg satellite will serve as an amateur radio relay. The launch was the first this year for India.
