India launches 104 satellites, beats Russia
India on Wednesday created a world record by successfully putting into orbit 104 satellites, including the country’s own Cartosat-2earth observation satellite, in a single mission.
With the launch, ISRO surpassed the 37 satellite launch record set by a Russian rocket on June 19, 2014.
The co-passenger satellites comprised 101 nano satellites, one each from Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the UAE and 96 from the US, as well as two nano satellites from India.
The total weight of all the satellites carried on-board is about 1,378 kg. Multiple satellite launches with a PSLV rocket is not new for ISRO, having launched 20 satellites on June 22, 2016.
“One hundred and four satellites have been put into orbit,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman AS Kiran Kumar said soon after the launch, congratulating the space agency’s team on its success.
Exactly at 9.28 am the PSLV-XL variant rocket standing 44.4 metres tall and weighing 320 tonnes tore into the morning skies with fierce orange flames at its tail. Gathering speed every second, the rocket raced towards the heavens amid the cheers of the ISRO officials and the media team assembled at the rocket port here.
President Pranab Mukherjee, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi congratulated ISRO on the success. Science and Technology minister Harsh also congratulated the ISRO.
At the rocket mission control room, ISRO scientists were glued to their computer screens watching the rocket escaping the earth’s gravitational pull.
Around 28 minutes into the flight, the rocket completed its birth ‘karma’ slinging all the 104 satellites into their intended orbits as per the scheduled sequence.