Space. The final frontier. Looking to gather valuable information about Earth’s atmosphere, several small satellites are now orbiting in space, thanks to the successful launch of an Indian Rocket. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from India blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the 25th of February 2013 loaded with a variety of equipment.

The satellite carried a suitcase-sized NEOSsat satellite, which will aim to find asteroids and track space debris. It also carried the Sapphire satellite, which belongs to the Canadian Department of National Defence, which is roughly double the size of the NEOSsat. Two lunch-box sized BRITE satellites were also on board, which were funded by various countries including Austria. These satellites will work together to collect a lot of information on our solar system and space, and they were successfully launched into a polar sun synchronous orbit which is 785 kilometres above the surface.

Also on board was a 6.5 kilogram U.K. satellite, which was designed to test mobile phone electronics in space. Will these satellites provide new insights about outer space and advance technology. Only time will tell. For now, back to the cage.