Asia

Indian Space Agency Successfully Launches Country's 100th Satellite

The PSLV-C40 is to place 31 satellites, three Indian and 28 foreign including those of the UK, US, France, Canada, Finland and the Republic of Korea. The success of the launch comes as a big relief to the organization as its previous mission in August had failed.
Sputnik

New Delhi (Sputnik) — The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched the country's 100th satellite — the advanced remote sensing "Cartosat-2" from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on Friday.

READ MORE: Aiming High: India Looks at More Satellite Launches With New Facility From 2018

"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 chairman said after the launch. However, he also added that after 100 successes there can still be failures. "We should learn from past mistakes. We have made rigorous changes after the failure."

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle — PSLV-C40 is also carrying a nano-satellite and a micro-satellite both termed as "technology demonstrators indicating significant stride towards miniaturization" by ISRO. The foreign payloads include 3 microsatellites and 25 nano-satellites from Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA.

The satellites will be placed into two orbits- thirty of the satellites in an orbit of 550 km, and one 359-km above the Earth.

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