Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C21 was launched from Sathish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota a short while ago. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh witnessed the historic event of the agency’s 100th mission from the spaceport.

PSLV C 21 will launch France’s earth observation satellite SPOT 6 alongwith a micro satellite from Japan. Both the satellites will be injected into a 655 kilometre polar orbit inclined at an angle of 98.23 degree to the equator.

With a lift off mass of 712 kilograms, Spot -6 is the heaviest satellite to be launched by PSLV for an international customer. The Japanese Micro satellite PROITERES carries an auxiliary payload and has a lift off mass of 15 kgs.

PSLV C21 is the 8th flight of PSLV in Core alone configuration without solid strap on motors.

The French observation satellite Spot 6 was built by Atrium SAS, a leading European Space technology company.

PROITERES is intended to study powered flight of a small satellite by an electric thruster and will observe Kasai District in Japan with a high resolution camera.