ISRO makes history by successfully launching 104 satellites

February 15, 2017 Share Like Labels: ba

Dear Readers,

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched a record 104 satellites in one go at 10:00 AM today on board a single rocket from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. In this record-breaking mission of 104 satellites launched by ISRO, three are Indian and 101 are foreign and smaller satellites.

India has created history with this proud launch of PSLV-C37/Cartosat-2 series satellite. The highest number of satellites launched in a single mission was 37, a record that Russia had achieved in 2014. The US space agency NASA launched 29 from a single rocket, but 104 is a big number.

These are some important highlights of the PSLV-C37/Cartosat2 Series satellite mission which included international payloads:

☛ PSLV at first launched the 714 kg CARTOSAT-2 Series satellite for earth observation and then injected 103 co-passenger satellites, together weighing about 664 kg at lift-off into polar Sun Synchronous Orbit, about 520 km from Earth.

☛ The co-passenger satellites comprise 101 nanosatellites, one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 96 from United States of America (USA), as well as two Nanosatellites from India.

☛ The 101 International customer Nanosatellites are being launched as part of the commercial arrangements between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), a Government of India company under Department of Space (DOS), the commercial arm of ISRO and the International customers.

☛ On 15th February ISRO beat the record held by Russia, which in 2014 catapulted 37 satellites in a single launch, using a modified inter-continental ballistic missile.

☛ ISRO scientists have used the XL Variant – the most powerful rocket – earlier used in the ambitious Chandrayaan and during the Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM).

☛ The government is pleased with ISRO's progress and in the recently announced annual budget it gave the space agency a 23 per cent increase in its budget.