India Launches Seven Satellites In One Go

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), one of the new emerging space agencies in the world, on 23rd September 2009 launched seven satellites in a single rocket. Among these seven satellites, one was Indian, four German, one Turkish and one Swedish. India’s satellite, Oceansat-2, will enhance the ocean monitoring capabilities of the original Oceansat, which launched in 1999, while the other satellites carries a university-funded payload designed to conduct research on various new technologies.

It took only 40 million dollars to put seven satellites into orbit about 447 miles above Earth’s surface; the rocket alone cost India 700 million rupees, or nearly $15 million USD; pretty cheap!. India has pursued a space program since 1963 and their greatest achievement up till now was sending first lunar probe, The Chandrayaan-1 to the moon for mapping the surface and gave chilling news on the discovery of water on the surface but unfortunately ISRO prematurely lost all contacts with the spacecraft and it is believed that it crashed on the moon.

Now India is on the go after launching these seven satellites, but this not the first time, ISRO first fired an Italian satellite into orbit in 2007, and due to its cost advantage over other space-faring nations, it has since carved out a role for itself as a reliable, economical alternative to more expensive carriers (like the U.S.) and last year they launched 10 with a single rocket. By 2015 ISRO hopes to launch first manned flight into the space.