April 29 - India rocketed into space history on Monday by launching 10 statellites into their orbits some 600 km above earth. India became the second country in the world to achieve the difficult feat, after Russia which had put into orbit 13 satellites in April 2007.

The satellites which mainly belonged to Germany and Canada were carried into space by India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle which blasted off from Sriharikota, a space centre off the country's eastern coast near the southern city of Chennai.

The Indian-made Cartosat-2A remote sensing satellite, which is fitted with a high resolution camera for recording clear images from space was the main satellite launched, an ISRO spokesman said.

High resolution images and data from the satellite will be used to manage infrastructure and natural resources in the country.

Riding high on this successful mission, the ISRO said its all set to launch Chandrayaan 1, the moon mission, in the third quarter of this year.

Confirming this, ISRO chairman G Madhavan Nair told The Hindustan Times “Our next mission will be Chandrayan for which all instruments are ready and being tested.”