India launches several commercial satellites, undermining Russia's monopoly
India’s Space Agency launched 20 satellites into the Earth’s sun-synchronous orbit using one carrier and thus undermined the Russian monopoly on such launches.
The main satellite, the new Indian Cartosat-2, will take pictures of the Earth’s surface at intervals of less than a meter for use by the country's military. Among the smaller satellites there are 13 American, two Canadian, one German and one Indonesian.
As the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has reported, the PSLV carrier rocket, launched from the Sriharikota High Altitude Range (SHAR) on the southeastern coast of India, put the satellites into the sun-synchronous orbit in 26 minutes.
So far Russia has been the only country to offer commercial launches of satellites into orbits.
A satellite moving in a sun-synchronous orbit travels over every spot of the earth's surface exactly at local solar time. This is especially useful for mapping and reconnaissance satellites.