An Indian rocket yesterday evening successfully placed into orbit seven satellites — the Indo-French satellite SARAL, the world’s first smart phone-operated nano satellite, a space telescope satellite and four other foreign satellites — in copybook style.

A little after 6 pm, the rocket — Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-C20 (PSLV-C20) standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing around 230 tonnes — hurtled towards the skies ferrying the seven satellites together weighing 668.5 kg.