Pallava Bagla

Sriharikota, Apr 28: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), set up 35 years ago, may be a baby among the world's space faring nations. But, it is competing with the other biggies to set world records.

And the mission, which is going to give ISRO an edge over other competitors, is the launch of India's latest Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The launch vehicle has taken off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh and will launch 10 satellites - a feat that could create a world record.

PSLV weighs 230 tons - the weight of almost 50 elephants - and is as high as a 12-storey building.

Its target is to put two Indian and eight foreign satellites into orbit and if successful, it will beat the current world record of hoisting eight satellites at one go accomplished by Russia almost a year ago.

At lift-off, the first stage of the rocket will ignite. Three minutes after the flight, the massive heat shield will peel off. And then, one after the other, the third and fourth stages will ignite taking the rocket higher.

Almost 15 minutes after the flight, India's mapping satellite called CARTOSAT 2-A will be the first one to be put into orbit and 45 seconds later, the experimental remote sensing satellite, called the Indian Mini Satellite, will be put into orbit.

After a gap of 100 seconds, all the babies on board will be sequentially dropped off one by one, with a gap of 20 seconds each with the mission ending almost 20 minutes after lift-off.

The first foreign satellite to be dropped off will be CUTE from Japan and the last to be ejected will be RUBIN from Germany.

But all eyes will be on the high-resolution mapping satellite CARTOSAT 2-A, which, while placed at a height of over 600 kilometres, can identify objects as small as a car.