Indian rocket puts 7 satellites including the Nexus-One powered STRaND-1 in orbit

An Indian rocket successfully placed into orbit seven satellites including one with an Nexus One onboard yesterday. The satellites included the Indo-French satellite SARAL, the world's first smartphone-operated nano satellite STRaND-1, a space telescope satellite and four other foreign satellites.The rocket — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C20 (PSLV-C20) — hurtled towards the skies on Monday evening, ferrying the seven satellites together weighing 668.5 kg. President Pranab Mukherjee witnessed the first of the 10 space missions planned by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) for 2013 and also the country's 101st space mission. At around 18 minutes into the flight PSLV-C20 spat out SARAL satellite. The following four minutes saw the rocket ejecting six satellites in their intended polar orbit. Immediately on the successfully ejection of the seven satellites, scientists at the mission control centre were visibly relieved and started clapping happily. Mukherjee congratulated the scientists. "Delighted to witness the remarkable launch of the PSLV. I congratulate ISRO for successfully executing the mission," he said.

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