India's historical moment: ISRO marks milestone with launch of 100th satellite along with 30 others

Image courtesy: ISRO

New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully marked a century by launching its 100th satellite today along with 30 others.

This was ISRO's maiden launch of 2018, while also being the first launch after the unsuccessful launch of the IRNSS-1H satellite in August 2017, when the PSLV rocket's heat shield separation failed to take place.

During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country: AS Kiran, ISRO pic.twitter.com/qoyMh95cNP

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018

In its forty-second flight, the PSLV-C40 is carrying the 710 kg Cartosat-2 Series Satellite for earth observation and 30 co-passenger satellites together weighing about 613 kg at lift-off.

The launch took place from the First Launch Pad (FLP) of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota.

The co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA.

The total weight of all the 31 satellites carried onboard PSLV-C40 is about 1323 kg.

Satellite ‘Cartosat-2’ series launch: All nano satellites separated pic.twitter.com/DEq9CUPZF6

— ANI (@ANI) January 12, 2018

The 28 International customer satellites 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.

Check out the latest updates below:

• 30 satellites have been placed into the orbit successfully.
• New ISRO Chairman Sivan K expresses happiness over the success of the mission. Thanks everyone for having confidence in ISRO after the PSLV failure last year.
• AS Kiran Kumar announces the launch of ISRO's second heavy rocket - GSLV Mark-II - scheduled for next month.
• Former ISRO chief AS Kiran Kumar addresses the team. 'We are extremely happy to provide a new year gift to the country with this successful launch', he says.
• Separation of all nano satellites confirmed.
• 30 satellites begin to separate.
• Cartosat-2 series has successfully separated.
• The fourth-stage engine has been shut off. 
• Third-stage has been declared separated. The fourth-stage engine is now ignited. This is the stage that will determine the placement of the 30 satellites. Performance normal.
• PSLV touches altitude of 340 km.
• The third-stage engine now ignited. Performance is normal.
• Second-stage performance has been declared normal at an altitude of 191 km.
• PSLV heat shield successfully separated.
• The first stage has been declared separated. Performance norma; PSLV touches altitude of 100 km.
• And it's lift-off! PSLV-C40 takes off for orbit. ISRO launches its 100th satellite along with 30 others.
• The PSLV stands poised for take-off. One-minute to launch.
• Three-minute countdown commences.
• The images sent by Cartosat-2 series satellite will be useful for cartographic applications, urban and rural applications, coastal land use and regulation, road network monitoring, water distribution, the creation of land use maps and change detection to bring out geographical Land Information Systems and Geographical Information System applications.
• It is the third satellite in the Cartosat-2 series and is similar to the earlier Cartosat-2, 2A, and 2B.
• It carries panchromatic and multi-spectral cameras operating in Time Delay Integration mode and is capable of delivering high-resolution data.
• The Cartosat-2 series satellite launch is a follow-on mission with the primary objective of providing high-resolution scene-specific spot imageries.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a post on Twitter, lauded the Indian space agency on the success of the Cartosat-2 mission.

My heartiest congratulations to @isro and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018

The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements, and also the bright future of India's space programme.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018

Benefits of India's success are available to our partners! Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 12, 2018

The Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Mehbooba Mufti, also took to the microblogging site to congratulate ISRO.

I congratulate the entire team at @isro on successfully launching its 100th satellite from Sriharikota.

— Mehbooba Mufti (@MehboobaMufti) January 12, 2018