India launches defense, 28 customer satellites

NEW DELHI, April 1 (Xinhua) -- The Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) on Monday morning successfully launched an observation satellite EMISAT and 28 international Customer satellites onboard PSLV-C45, officials said.

The satellites were launched from Satish Dhawan Space center (SDSC) in Sriharikota, off the Bay of Bengal coast located in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh at 9:27 a.m. local time.

"PSLV-C45 successfully injects EMISAT into sun-synchronous polar orbit. Now, 28 Customer satellites to be placed into their designated orbit," read a statement issued by ISRO after the successful launch of the satellites.

Television images showed the rocket blasted off from the launch pad emitting a bright orange flame from its tail and moving upwards in the sky.

EMISAT is an Electronic Intelligence Satellite of the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), while 28 foreign satellites are from four countries--Lithuania, Spain, Switzerland and the United States.

"Weighing about 436 kg, EMISAT based on ISRO's Indian Mini Satellite -2 (IMS-2) bus platform. The satellite is intended for electromagnetic spectrum measurement," read the information released by ISRO.

"The PS4 orbital platform is envisaged to provide a microgravity environment for research organisations and academic institutes to perform experiments. In this mission, the PS4 hosts three payloads, namely, Automatic Identification System (AIS) from ISRO, Automatic Packet Repeating System (APRS) from AMSAT (Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation), India and Advanced Retarding Potential Analyzer for Ionospheric Studies (ARIS) from the Indian Institute of Space Science and technology (IIST)."

ISRO Chairman Kailasavadivoo Sivan was monitoring the launch along with other top scientists.