Bangalore: After a month's delay, India's exclusive communication satellite, INSAT-3E, was successfully launched in a precise mission by European Ariane 5 rocket from the spaceport of Kourou in French Guyana, giving a boost to telecommunication and television services.

Carrying a trio of payloads in clear weather, Ariane 5 injected the 2775 kg INSAT-3E into Geo- synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) in the 29-minute of its flight in a multi-step intricate mission, Arianespace and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) sources said.

Two other satellites -- e-BIRD for Europe's Eutelsat and SMART-1 for the European Space Agency -- were also launched by Ariane on board its 162nd flight with INSAT-3E being the highest payload.

Soon after its injection into space, the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka took control of INSAT-3E whose performance was described as "normal" by ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair in his remarks after witnessing the launch.

"It (Ariane 5) has put INSAT-3E into precise orbit", said Nair, who took over as ISRO chief about a month ago from Dr K Kasturirangan, following his nomination to the Rajya Sabha.

INSAT-3E was slated for launch in August but a quality alert from a Japanese firm, which supplied the components, had forced ISRO to retest the components, causing the delay.

Announcing that MCF had acquired signals from INSAT-3E, Nair said, "We hope we will be able to complete the remaining operations and make it a grand success for the national programme."

PTI