Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh), Sep 23 - India consolidated its position as a leading global player in the space sector as it Wednesday launched its 16th remote-sensing satellite, the Rs.160-crore ($32 million) Oceansat-2, to study oceans and climate, along with six small European satellites on board a rocket that blasted off from here.

Under a clear blue sky, the 44.4-metre tall, 230-tonne Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), built at a cost of Rs.75 crore, freed itself from the launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport, around 80 km from Chennai, at 11.51 a.m. and soared upwards with a deep throated growl lugging the 960-kg Oceansat-2 and the six nano satellites all together weighing 20 kg.

It is 'sweet sixteen' for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) as the success comes exactly 16 years after the first PSLV flew from here on Sep 20, 1993, in a failed mission.

ISRO Chairman G. Madhavan Nair said: 'It is an extremely good afternoon for us. The PSLV is like a wine. As it ages, it improves and gets better.'

In a copybook style, the rocket first spat out Oceansat-2 at an altitude of 728 km above the earth in a sun-synchronous orbit (SSO), followed by the four nano satellites - also called Cubesats, each weighing one kg. The remaining two, each weighing eight kg, were attached to the rocket's fourth stage.

The six nano satellites are owned by universities - four from Germany and one each from Switzerland and Turkey - and were launched under a commercial agreement.

Soon after the satellites were put into orbit, ISRO's satellite tracking centres started monitoring them.

Nair added: 'Over the years the PSLV launch frequency has improved. From a single launch every year, today we average two launches. This year the total number of launches will be four.'

ISRO will be launching Cartosat, a 650 kg remote-sensing satellite using PSLV and GSat-4 through Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) later this year.

According to K.R. Sridhara Murthi, executive director of Antrix Corporation Limited that is ISRO's commercial arm, the Indian space agency has a backlog of launch orders from European agencies and these would be completed in a year and a half.

Speaking about the health of Oceansat-2, T.