Indian ISRO PLSV rocket launches 5 satellites: Three minute delay to avoid space debris

The Monday morning blast off of an Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) PSLV rocket carrying five foreign satellites was delayed by three minutes to avoid a collision with space debris, the space agency said.

Despite the necessary delay, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle's (PSLV) carrying the five foreign satellites blasted off from the Indian Space Research Organization’s launch pad at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh in southern India at 09:52 a.m. local time.

With this launch, India has successfully put into orbit five foreign satellites from four different countries.

The rocket's main payload was the 714-kg French EADS Astrium Earth Observation satellite SPOT-7.

The other satellites are:

• 14-kg AISAT-1 of Germany (already transmitting signals from orbit); 
• NLS7.1 (CAN-X4) and NLS7.2 (CAN-X5) from Canada's University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies' Space Flight Laboratory each weighing 15 kg (CanX-4 and CanX-5 form a dual nanosatellite formation flying a demonstration mission); and 
• 7-kg, 1U Cubesat VELOX-1 of Singapore.

The five satellites were launched under commercial arrangements that Antrix Corporation has entered into with the respective foreign agencies.