PSLV-C9

Setting a world record, India's Polar rocket on Monday successfully placed ten satellites, including the country's remote sensing satellite, into orbit in a single mission from Sriharikota, on April 28, 2008 .

The ten pack launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) saw the 230-tonne Polar Satellite launch Vehicle (PSLV-C9) carry the heaviest luggage - 824 kgs - and put into orbit an Indian Mini Satellite and eight foreign nano satellites besides the Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite.

At the end of the 52-hour countdown, the PSLV-C9, with alift-off mass of 230 tonne, blasted off from the launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre and soared into the clear sky in a textbook launch.

1. Remote Sensing satellite, CARTOSAT-2A along with

2. Indian Mini Satellite (IMS-1) and

3. Eight nanosatellites

CARTOSAT-2A weighing about 690 kg capable of taking black-and-white pictures.

The highly agile CARTOSAT-2A is steerable along as well as across the direction of its movement to facilitate imaging of any area more frequently.

CARTOSAT-2A will form a pair with CARTOSAT-2 launched on January 10, 2007 providing more frequent revisit.

Indian Mini Satellite-1 (IMS-1) is developed by ISRO which is weighing 83 kg at lift-off. IMS-1 carries two optical payloads – a Multispectral camera (Mx Payload) and a Hyperspectral camera (HySI Payload).

Eight nanosatellites built by universities and research institutions in Canada and Germany are also being launched under a commercial agreement with Antrix Corporation. The weight of these Nanosatellites vary from 3 to 16 kg with a total weight of about 50 kg.

The launch campaign is progressing satisfactorily at SDSC SHAR and tyhese are being from abroad around 9.20 am on Monday, April 28, 2008 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

This was the thirteenth flight of PSLV.

With this the number of satellites launched by India exceeds 50


Sir Arthur C Clarke

Sir Arthur C Clarke was famous for his science fiction writing

British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in his adopted home of Sri Lanka at the age of 90. Somerset-born author achieved his greatest fame in 1968 when his short story The Sentinel was turned into the film 2001: A Space Odyssey. His visions of space travel and computing sparked the imagination of readers and scientists alike. He has been "great visionary".

Since 1995, the author had been largely confined to a wheelchair by post-polio syndrome.

He died of respiratory complications and heart failure.

The author married in 1953, and was divorced in 1964. He had no children. He moved to the Indian Ocean island of Sri Lanka in 1956 after embarking on a study of the Great Barrier Reef.

There, he pursued his interest in scuba diving, even setting up a diving school at Hikkaduwa, near the capital, Colombo.