India to launch 5 satellites this year

NEW DELHI - India is to launch at least five satellites this year, a top space official said Monday.

"Three satellites - Spot-6, a French satellite and a small Japanese communication satellite will be launched next month via Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket. The other two would be launched later this year," PS Veeraraghavan, the director of state-owned Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, told the media in the southern Indian city of Chennai.

The French satellite will soon be brought into India while the Japanese satellite is already in the southern spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the official said, the two launches will take the space agency's total tally of ferrying foreign satellites to 29.

India had last week approved a mission to Mars.