Speaking at a press conference here yesterday, SRM University president P Sathyanarayan said the satellite was developed by about 50 students from 12 departments, weighs 10.4 kgs and cost is Rs 1.5 crore. The satellite will estimate and monitor the green house gases, carbon-dioxoide and water vapour in the atmosphere for the next two years. This will also be the only satellite monitoring the green house gases, he said.

'The satellite has been completely designed, developed and build by the students of SRM University with active collaboration from Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO),' he said.

He also said that the university is proud to announce that it is the first private university to launch a satellite and the first to launch a nano satellite. The university is also in talks with ISRO to start a centre for space science in its Chennai campus, he added.

'SRMSAT is an autonomous satellite and will fully be controlled by the students of the university. The data will be analysed and made available to the scientific community,' said director-research of SRM University Narayana Rao.

The satellite has been transported to SDSC SHAR Centre, Sriharikota where it has been integrated with the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, PSLV-C18.

The year 2011 has been good for the university and lot of achievements have taken place. The university plans to open a campus in Haryana which be a Sate University and not a deemed one, said SRM University Chancellor T R Pachamuthu.