With a combined weight of 700 kilograms, the other six satellites are intended for telecommunications, ground measurements, detection and tracking of asteroids and tracking of resident object in space, including the so-called space junk, at a height of 6, 040 kilometers above Earth.
The PSLV-C20 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre located at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 5:56pm. This was 23rd journey of the PSLV. The 44 meter rocket will take less than half an hour to drop all the seven satellites in the orbit. So far, PSLV has a remarkable record of 21 consecutive successful flights.
PSLV is also slated to ferry India's maiden mission Mangalyaan later in October 2013 to Mars. Mangalyaan will make India the sixth country to undertake an effort of this kind after the United States, Russia, Europe, Japan and China.