Posted: Wed, Jan 10, 2007, 6:25 AM ET (1125 GMT)
An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket placed four satellites into orbit early Wednesday, including a new remote sensing satellite and India's first recoverable spacecraft. The PSLV lifted off from India's Satish Dhawan Space Centre spaceport at 10:53 pm EST Tuesday (0353 GMT, 9:23 am local time Wednesday) and placed is payload of four satellites into a 637-kilometer polar orbit. The largest of the four satellites on the PSLV is Cartosat-2, a 680-kilogram high-resolution remote sensing satellite. The other major payload on the PSLV was the 550-kilogram Space capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), India's first spacecraft that is designed to return to Earth. SRE-1 carries two microgravity science experiments, and will return to Earth in several days, splashing down in the Bay of Bengal off the Indian coast. Also on the PSLV were two microsatellites, Indonesia's LAPAN-TUBSAT and Argentina's PEHUENSAT-1. The flight is the first orbital launch worldwide in 2007, and the first for India since the failed launch of a larger GSLV rocket in July 2006.
