India puts navigation satellite in orbit

isro rocketBy Venkatachari Jagannathan

 India successfully put into orbit its fourth navigation satellite with its own rocket in copy book style.

Exactly at 5.19 p.m, the rocket – Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle – (PSLV-C27) standing about 44 metres tall and weighing around 320 tonne, tore into the evening skies with fierce orange flames at its tail.

The expendable rocket had a single but important luggage, the 1,425 kg IRNSS-1D.

The rocket blasted off from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, around 80 km from Chennai.

For the onlookers the rocket looked like an inverted flare/torch with a long handle as it gathered speed amidst the cheers of the ISRO officials and the media team assembled at the rocket port here.