SRIHARIKOTA, India (Reuters) — India fired a rocket carrying 31 small satellites into space on Friday, several of them for European countries looking for high-resolution earth images, underlining its strength as a low-cost provider of services in space.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launched a 712 kg Cartosat-2 satellite for earth observation and 30 other tiny satellites from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 9.29 a.m. (0359GMT).
The rocket is carrying satellites from India and 14 other countries, including Austria, Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia, as part of an international commercial arrangement by the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation. (ISRO)
Modi’s government has been promoting the space program as a showcase of low-cost technology. In February, the ISRO launched 104 satellites in a single mission, most of them for foreign customers.
