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India launches 11th rocket, puts four satellites into orbit

"It is a great day for the country. We have done it and done it correctly. The mission is a success."

G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization

An Indian rocket carrying a satellite designed to test re-entry vehicle technology that could be used in a future manned space mission blasted into space yesterday.

The red and white rocket climbed into space from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh to the cheers of scientists and engineers at mission control.

"It is a great day for the country. We have done it and done it correctly. The mission is a success," said G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization.

India has not announced specific plans for a manned space mission, but an unmanned moon mission is scheduled for next year.

The rocket carried the 550kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment, or SRE-1, designed to test re-entry technology, the ISRO said in a statement.

The capsule is due to orbit the earth for 13 to 30 days before it re-enters the atmosphere and plunging into the Bay of Bengal off India's east coast, where it will be recovered, the statement said.

It will test technology for "navigation, guidance and control during the re-entry phase."

SRE-1 will also carry out experiments involving microgravity conditions.

The rocket also carried an Indian remote sensing satellite, and two foreign built satellites -- Lupan Tubsat, an Indonesian earth observation satellite, and Pehuensat-1, an Argentine nano-satellite built by the University of Comahue of Argentina, AMSAT (Amateur Satellite Association of Argentina) and the Argentine Association for Space Technology.

The Argentine satellite is intended to provide an experimental platform to perform amateur radio experiments between the country's colleges and universities, ISRO said.

All four satellites were successfully placed into orbit, said mission director K. Narayanamurthy.

The launch was the first since July when an attempt to launch a communications satellite failed after the rocket veered off course in the separation stage and exploded.

India has had 11 successful rocket launches since 1982.

India earlier put its satellites into orbit aboard European rockets launched from the EU's space center in French Guiana.
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