The Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has congratulated the DRDO Scientists on the successful launch of Agni-III missile. <br/><br/>In his message to the orgnisation and the Project Team Dr. Manmohan Singh has commended the scientists and engineers for their dedication, hard work and excellence towards achieving self reliance in high technology areas and meeting the countries defence needs. <br/><br/>The Prime Minister has said that the scientists have always done the country proud.<br/><br/>On Sunday, India successfully test-fired its nuclear-capable Agni-III ballistic missile from the Wheeler Island off Orissa coast. The indigenously developed surface-to-surface missile was tested from a rail mobile launcher near Dhamara, about 100 kilometers from Balasore.<br/><br/>Defence sources said, all mission parameters of the missile with a range of more than 3,000 kilometers were met. This is the fourth flight test in the Agni-III series carried out to establish the repeatability of the missile's performance.<br/><br/>The entire trajectory of the trial was monitored through various telemetry stations, electro-optic systems and sophisticated radars located along the coast, in Port Blair and by Naval ships anchored near the impact point in the down range area for data analysis. Agni-III missile is powered by a two-stage solid propellant system.<br/><br/>With a length of 17 metres, the missile's diameter is 2 metres and launch weight is 50 tonnes. It can carry a payload of 1.5 tonnes which is protected by carbon-carbon all composite heat shield.<br/><br/>The sleek missile is equipped with sophisticated navigation, guidance and control systems along with advanced on-board computer systems. The first trial of Agni-III conducted in July, 2006 had ended in failure.<br/><br/>But the subsequent two tests on April 12, 2007 and May 7, 2008 were successful. Senior Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) and Indian Army officials were present on the occasion of the launch.<br/>