THE champion of technological success on a "shoe-string budget' has done it again. By successfully launching 10 satellites in one go on a PSLV rocket, ISRO has further reinforced PSLV's record as a reliable, low-cost launcher in the international launch market. PSLV C-9 took off on Monday carrying two Indian satellites, the second edition of CARTOSAT, similar in capability to the first, and the first of a series of Indian mini satellites, called the Indian Mini Satellite (IMS)-1. The other eight satellites were very small systems, belonging to several foreign universities. With the capability for such simultaneous launches, ISRO has been able to offer customers like universities a reliable, cost-effective way to get their projects into space. PSLV has already launched 16 satellites for international customers and PSLV C-8, the earlier flight, was entirely commercial, with no Indian payload. While CARTOSAT-2A weighed about 690 kg, IMS-1 weighed about 83 kg. The total weight of the nanosatellites was about 50 kilograms, and six of them were clustered together as NLS-4, developed by the University of Toronto, Canada. They were individually built in Japan, Canada, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. NLS-5, the seventh satellite, was also built by the University of Toronto while Rubin-8, the last was built by Cosmos International, Germany. These satellites will explore various satellite technologies, including nano-technologies. CARTOSAT, with its high-resolution cameras, will aid detailed urban and rural mapping, and there is a large demand for such data from across the world. IMS-1 also has remote sensing cameras, with new, miniaturised sub-systems. With such a multi-system payload, separation and placement of each satellite in the desired orbit was a critical and precise operation. It was carried out accurately, to the delight of scientists and customers alike, and will form a basis of confidence for future multiple launches. PSLV itself is proving its reliability with every launch, and the new, core-alone configuration is also working well. While it is used mostly to launch satellites into polar, sun-synchronous orbits, it was also used to place Kalpana-1 in a geo-synchronous transfer orbit, and will be used later this year for India's first lunar mission, by launching the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. That will further enhance PSLV's attractiveness in the launch market.