In its sixth flight conducted from the SHAR Centre in Sriharikota the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Satellite launch Vehicle, PSLV-C3, successfully launched three satellites -- Technology Experiment Satellite (TES) of ISRO, BIRD of Germany and PROBA of Belgium - into their intended orbits.
According to the BBC, the launch date was kept secret following the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.
This is the second time that PSLV launched three satellites simultaneously; in the previous launch in May 1999 PSLV had launched India's IRS-P4 along with German DLR and Korean KITSAT-3.
While the TES and BIRD (Bispectral and Infrared Remote Detection) satellites were placed in the 353 mile (568-km) sun-synchronous orbit. The PROBA (Project for On Board Autonomy) was placed in an elliptical orbit with a perigee (nearest to earth) of 568 km and an apogee (farthest to the earth) of 396 mile (638-km). The higher orbit for PROBA was achieved by firing the reaction control thrusters of PSLV-C3 fourth stage.
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