India on July 15 successfully launched its latest communications satellite, GSat-12, aboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). The nationally televised launch took place at 4:48 p.m. local time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota Island off India's southeastern coast. "I am extremely happy to state that the mission is successful," K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said at a post-launch press conference. ISRO said in a statement it used a PSLV configuration with six strap-on motors, each carrying 12 metric tons of solid propellant, to place the 1410-kilogram GSat-12 into a geostationary transfer orbit with a perigee of 284 kilometers and an apogee of 21,000 kilometers. ISRO said GSat-12's liquid-fueled apogee motor would be used to place die craft in a circular geostationary orbit 36,000 kilometers above the equator, where it will be co-located with ISRO's Insat-2E and Insat-4A satellites at 83 degrees longitude.
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