Sri Lanka, Feb. 18 -- India successfully launched a powerful new weather satellite into orbit early Saturday (Feb. 17) to begin an ambitious mission for

The Indian Space Research Organisation's INSAT-3DS satellite lifted off atop a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) on Saturday at 7:05 a.m. EST (1205 GMT; 5:35 p.m. local India time) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre on India's southeast coast.

"I'm very happy to announce the successful accomplishment of the mission GSLV-F14," ISRO chairman S. Somanth said in a post-launch speech, using the mission's numerical name. "The spacecraft has been injected into a very good orbit."

Indian space officials jokingly referred to the GSLV rocket as ISRO's "naughty boy," adding that despite...