Satellites Launched
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SRIHARIKOTA, India — A rocket carrying Indian, German and South Korean satellites blasted off from southeastern India on Wednesday in the first commercial launch by the Indian space agency.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-2 and the three satellites took off from the space center on an island in the Bay of Bengal. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and experts at the Indian Space Research Organization cheered as the rocket took off.
Combined with the recent launch of another Indian communications satellite two months ago, “the present launch shows India’s mastery over all aspects of space technology,” Vajpayee said in a brief address to the scientists.
The rocket is India’s most technologically advanced space project. Wednesday’s launch was the first with a foreign commercial payload.
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