As Indian's polar launch vehicle PSLV-C9 roared perfectly into the clear sky above the Bay of Bengal from the Satish Dhawan Space Research Center at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on Monday morning and delivered 10 satellites into designated orbits, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) made a record of which it can be rightfully proud. It was the first time in the history of space launches that a single rocket launched ten satellites using a complication separation mechanism successfully, two of them India's own and eight nano satellites of four different countries. The launch of 230 tons PSLV-C9 rockets at 9-23 am from the second launch pad of Sriharikota was so perfect that in the words of the ISRO scientists there was no slightest deviation from the expected trajectory. Speaking after the picture-perfect launch and successfully delivery of payloads into the orbit, the ISRO chairman G. Madhavan Nair said, “the mission was perfect and space crafts were delivered on the dot and for ISRO it is a historic moment. For the first time we are carrying ten satellites in to orbit with in one mission. We are extremely proud of the entire team and the industrial and academic participants who really worked hard for achieving this mission”. ISRO on Monday broke the record earlier held by the Russian Space agency which had sent 8 satellites on one mission and European mission which sent seven satellites. NASA of America has sent only four satellites at once. There was an air of jubilation and celebrations at SHAR as the mission achieved one mile stone after the other culminating in to the separation of Cartosat-2A and mini satellite IMS-1 followed by the nano satellites of Japan, Canada, Germany, Denmark and the Netherlands. Fourteen minutes after the launch, the fourth stage of PSLV put the satellite in to 635 polar Sun Synchr onous orbit. This was the 13th successive launch of the PSLV rockets built by the Vikram Sarabhai space center, Thiruvananthapuram. This is also the third time when the PSLV's core alone version has been launched, shorn of the six solid propellant strap-on motors. Though the mission has many significant features but the most notable of them is that it would pave the way for the biggest mission of ISRO - Chandrayan-I. Madhavan Nair said that the instrument mission to Moon was expected to be launched in the third quarter of this year. “We are in the process of preparing for Chandrayan our first mission to Moon. It will be instrumented pay load which will circle the moon for almost two years drawing the map of its terrain as well as the minerals”. This historic mission will be allowed indigenous cryogenic flight of GSLV. IMS-1, the mini satellite launched Monday, is the first in the series of mini satellites which will use many new technologies for remote sensing. __
