India on Wednesday launched its 50th rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. Launched at 6 pm, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle successfully placed in orbit six Singaporean satellites, which were launched 30 seconds apart to avoid collision and to set a distance of some 20 kilometres between them.

This is the 32nd flight of the 44-metre-tall rocket. The PSLV placed the first satellite into orbit 22 minutes into the flight, when it was at a distance of 550 kilometres from the Earth’s surface. These satellites were built to capture images of Singapore once every 100 minutes and track threats in the sea and air, as well as natural disasters.