Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Sep 9: Making history in its space Odyssey, India today successfully launched its 100th mission with its workhorse PSLV-C21 placing in orbit two foreign satellites in a flawless flight from the spaceport here.
 The third wholly commercial launch with no Indian satellite was a textbook mission as ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle placed in orbit French spacecraft SPOT 6 and Japanese micro satellite PROITERES some 18 minutes after lift-off at 9:53 am.
 The lift-off was delayed by two minutes at the end of the 51-hour countdown to avoid collision with space debris.
 The historic mission was described as a "spectacular success" by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who keenly watched the launch sequence at the mission control centre at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 110 km from Chennai.
 A beaming ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan told the post-launch media conference that with today's successful mission the agency has launched 62 satellites, one space recovery module and 37 rockets, making it a grand 100.
 The 44-metre PSLV took off on its 22nd flight, zoomed into the overcast skies carrying the French satellite with a lift-off mass of 712 kg, the heaviest ever to be launched by India for an international client, and the 15 kg Japanese micro spacecraft.
 The mission was a historic landmark for ISRO in its five- decade old space programme since beginning on a humble note with the launch of the indigenous 'Aryabhatta' on board a Russian rocket on April 19, 1975.
 PSLV yet again proved its versatility and robustness scripting its 21st successful mission in a row after its first flight in September 1993 ended in a failure.
 SPOT-6 is the biggest commercial lift so far since India forayed into the multi-billion dollar global commercial satellite launch market after 350 kg Agile of Italy, put in orbit in 2007 by PSLV.

Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Sep 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Sun, 9 Sep 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Mon, 10 Sep 2012 00:00:00 IST