The rocket lifted off the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre here, about 80 km from Chennai, at 9.24 a.m. emitting thick orange flames, and placed in orbit an Indian cartography and a mini satellite to maintain leadership in the remote sensing domain.

It also slung eight nano satellites into outer space, marking the world's second largest such mission. Russia holds the record for launching 16 satellites at one go last year.

Fourteen minutes into the flight, the 44-metre tall rocket first slung the 690 kg Cartosat-2A and followed it by slipping the 83 kg mini satellite and the cluster of other nano satellites into a high polar sun synchronous orbit (SSO).

However, there were a few anxious moments for the ISRO scientists as the separation signal from seven satellites didn't come in initially.

Fortunately, it all ended well when the tracking station at Mauritius got the satellite signals.