The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) created history Wednesday by launching a record 104 satellites in a single mission. Here is all you need to know about the ground-breaking mission:
What
ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) – C37 carried the 714 kg Cartosat-2 series satellite for earth observation along with 103 co-passenger satellites. This is the highest number of satellites ever launched in a single mission.
When
The perfect lift-off happened at 9.28 am, Wednesday. In a launch that took 28 minutes, all the satellites were successfully placed into the Earth's orbit.
Where
The PSLV-C37, in its 39th flight, lifted off from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
Meet the Indian satellites
Cartosat–2 series: This was the first satellite to be launched and is made especially to monitor activities of India's hostile neighbors at a resolution of less than a meter keeping a bird's eye view on both Pakistan and China.
Cartosat was followed by two small Indian satellites (INS-1A and INS-1B), each weighing less than 10 kg, which carry a total of four different payloads from Space Applications Center and Laboratory for Electro Optics Systems of ISRO for conducting various experiments.
How
The PSLV let off satellites in space in a manner akin to a typical school bus which drops off its passengers at their respective bus stops in a sequential manner. Avoiding squabbling and elbowing in near zero gravity is not easy. The main challenge was to drop all the satellites in the same orbit, but it was a smooth affair.
In less than 600 seconds, all 101 international satellites were released into space each traveling at a whopping velocity of over 27,000 km per hour or at 40 times the speed of an average passenger airliner.
New world record
The earlier record for the highest number of satellites launched in a mission was held by Russia, which launched 37 satellites in 2014. ISRO had previously launched 20 satellites in 2016. No other country has attempted the century mark that ISRO successfully achieved.
Payload
The total weight of all the satellites carried onboard PSLV-C37 is about 1378 kg.
Going international
Among the co-passenger satellites, 101 belong to other countries. There is one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, The Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and 96 from United States of America (USA).
Commercial benefits
With this, ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corporation Limited made commercial agreements with international customers. Through this, the space agency was able to recover part of the cost incurred.
At present, ISRO is a global favorite as it can successfully launch satellites at a much lower cost than what is offered by other countries.
Future missions
A Mars rover mission along with French space agency is on the decks. The electronic budget documents also reveal that there are plans for a Venus mission too.
(With inputs from PTI)