Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair Thursday termed the successful launch of INSAT-4A satellite as the most important milestone in the history of the country's space agency.

"INSAT-4A is the most advanced, heaviest and powerful satellite so far and an important milestone in the history of ISRO," Nair said at Kourou in French Guyana, soon after the satellite was placed in the geo-synchronous transfer orbit.

According to an ISRO statement here, Nair said the satellite's payloads - 12 Ku-band and 12 C-band transponders - would add to the present INSAT (Indian satellite) capacity of 150 transponders.

"The Ku-band transponders will improve entertainment services in the sub-continent by providing direct-to-home (DTH) television broadcast," Nair said in his brief address to hundreds of space scientists and engineers at the Arianespace launch station of the European Space Agency.

India's first satellite in the INSAT-4 series had a text book launch on board the European Ariane-5G in the wee hours of Thursday at 04:03 IST.

Lauding the excellent work done by Arianespace, Nair said INSAT-4A was the 12th Indian satellite launched on board the Ariane, with which ISRO had been associating over the last 24 years.

"The Indian space programme has the objective of self-reliant earth observation, communication and scientific missions of which satellites and launch vehicles form important elements.

The space programme is oriented for the benefit of the common man, especially in the areas of agriculture, water resource management, forestry, fisheries, telecommunication and meteorology," Nair pointed out.

The country's disaster management system (DMS) is using the space inputs for its implementation.

Thanking Indian industries and academic institutions for helping the space agency to build INSAT-4A, Nair said the first signals from the satellite had already been acquired by the master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka.

"The signals indicate good health of the satellite," Nair said.