The prime minister Manmohan Singh has congratulated the team of scientists and all those who were behind the successful launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV C-19) that kept RISAT-1 into the orbit in the early hours of Thursday.

Manmohan Singh has said that the launch of India’s indigenous radar imaging satellite RISAT-1 will remain as a milestone in India’s space programme.

In fact, the prime minister telephoned the ISRO chairman S Radhkrishnan and congratulated him and asked to convey his wishes to the entire team.  He has also said that the country was proud of ISRO’s achievement and wished the organization all the best in its future endeavors.

It may be noted that ISRO has successfully launched its spy satellite RISAT-1 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota of Andhra Pradesh. After a few moments of the lifting off, everyone clapped and Radhakrishnan announced that the launch was a grand success.

So far India had to depend on Canada’s satellite for radar images and now that RISAT-1 is launched, the satellite would be sending high resolution of earth’s surface even when the atmosphere is bad. The satellite will start sending signals only after a couple of days. (Phani)