The launch of the Tecsar satellite by an Indian-made rocket was carried out in clear weather at 9:15 am local time (0345 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in southern India, the Indian Space Research Organisation said.

The 300-kilogram (650-pound) satellite, sometimes referred to as the Polaris, was steered into orbit about 20 minutes later, said Antrix Corporation, the marketing arm of the Bangalore-based space agency.

"Antrix is happy to announce that its second full-fledged commercial launch has been successfully completed," said executive director K.R. Sridhara Murthi in a statement in this southern Indian city.

The satellite was designed and developed by MBT Space, a division of Israel Aerospace Industries. It is equipped with a camera that can see through clouds and carry out day and night all-weather imaging.

The mission was carried out under a commercial contract between Israel Aerospace Industries and Antrix, Murthi said.

The launch is another step in the commercialisation of India's 45-year-old space programme, which put an Italian satellite into orbit in April last year for a fee of 11 million dollars.

"Basically, any user will look for reliability, timely delivery and the cost," said G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation, in a telephone interview. "We are well placed on all parameters."

India's launch service costs abut 60 to 70 percent of what is charged by other international space agencies, giving it a cost advantage, Nair said.

India wants to compete alongside the United States, Russia, China, the Ukraine and the European Space Agency in offering commercial satellite launch services.

Paris-based market research firm Euroconsult estimated last year that the launch market will grow to 145 billion dollars over the next 10 years, from 116 billion dollars in 1997-2006, as space-faring nations launch more satellites and deep-space probes.

"This is a major step forward in India's efforts to penetrate the global satellite launch market," said defence and space industry analyst B.K. Pandey, a former air marshal in the Indian air force.

The successful launch showed that India had a launch capability with a "high degree of reliability," he said in Bangalore.

Monday's mission was the eleventh consecutive successful launch carried out by the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which is also slated to launch India's first spacecraft to the moon, Chandrayaan-1, later this year.

The "copybook" launch had been kept secret because of its "geopolitical sensitivity," NDTV television network reported.

Tecsar's signal was received at the Israel Aerospace Industries' ground station 80 minutes after launch, the Israeli organisation said in a statement issued in Jerusalem.

"By all indications so far, the satellite is functioning properly," it said.

The satellite is the first "of its kind developed in Israel, and ranks among the world's most advanced space systems," the statement said. It will transmit the first images after 14 days, the statement added.

India started its space programme in 1963, and has since developed and put its own satellites into space. It has also designed and built launch rockets to reduce its dependence on overseas space agencies.

It carried out the first successful launch of a domestic satellite, which weighed 35 kilograms, by an Indian-built rocket, in 1980.

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