Chennai (AsiaNews / Agencies) – On Wednesday India successfully launched three satellites into space with a Pslv (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) c-16 rocket from the airbase Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh, the Bay of Bengal). The main satellite remote sensing Indian Resourcesat-2 will study the human impact on Earth's natural resources through high-resolution photos of coasts and oceans. The other two, are Indo-Russian Youthsat tostudy the ionosphere and the solar rays. Instead the X-Sat is provided by Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. It is the first satellite of the city-state.

Engineers and scientists at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre celebrated the successful launch as another great achievement, yet another sign of the birth of a new global economy. Particularly after the failure of a similar mission last December: Due to technical faults, two GSLV rockets (geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) exploded and crashed into the Bay of Bengal, on live television.

India hopes to launch its first manned into space in 2016. Lunar missions have gained momentum in New Delhi and Beijing after a series of budget cuts at NASA last year, that shot the hopes of a U.S. return to the Moon before 2020. More than half a century after the first U.S. landing.