科技英语新闻:Singapore's 1st locally-built satellite launched from India

SINGAPORE, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Singapore's first locally-built satellite has been officially launched from a space center in India after a four-year delay, Singapore media reported on Thursday.

The 105 kg fridge-size X-Sat was one of three riding on Isro's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C16) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in India on Wednesday. It will be used to take photographs to measure soil erosion and environmental changes on earth, local daily Straits Times said.

The launch at 12:42 p.m. on Wednesday was the 18th successful lift-off since the maiden flight of PSLV in 1994.

The satellite was designed and built by Singapore's Nanyang Technological University and Singapore's defense research body DSO National Laboratories.

Now in orbit, the satellite is establishing communication contact with the ground control in Nanyang Technological University, a process that is likely to take up to a week.

The launch capped more than nine years of hard work by scientists and engineers. It also makes Singapore one of the first countries in Southeast Asia to have its own satellite in space. Previous satellite launched by Singapore involved construction efforts by foreign companies.