Why Sky Is (Not) the Limit for ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation is justifiably one of those institutions that repeatedly do us all proud. ISRO has succeeded in some very ambitious endeavors, such as Mangalyaan, the Mars orbiter, ISRO’s successful Scramjet test, the way that ISRO is now the go-to organisation for several nations looking for satellite launches. Now ISRO has a new feather in its cap: a World Record no less!

104 satellites in one go

ISRO launched an incredible 104 satellites into space at one go, in a single mission. This is unprecedented and no other space agency in the world has done this before.

96 of the satellites were American

India is rapidly gaining market share in the $300 billion global space industry; particularly within the space of putting commercial satellites into space for a fee. Of the 104 satellites, 96 were American satellites, 2 were Indian and there was one each from Kazakhstan, Israel, UAE, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

PSLV used for launch

The launch vehicle PSLV-C37 successfully launched Cartosat-2 Series Satellite along with 103 co-passenger satellites.

This was a historical, record breaking launch

The earlier record was held by Russia, when 37 satellites were launched together using a modified inter-continental ballistic missile in 2014.

ISRO – famously frugal

It is well known that ISRO manages to do what it does even with a paucity of funds and other resources. It was famously said that the Mars mission cost less per kilometer than a rickshaw ride! Launching real satellites in India costs less than making a Hollywood movie such as Gravity!

Meanwhile the ‘ISRO aunties’ have gone viral

Many of us probably received this image via WhatsApp. The picture is a few years old and was reportedly posted after the Mangalyaan mission, but that didn’t stop some web-wit from making of it they wanted to. The image is also circulating and attributed (falsely) to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

What’s next for ISRO

ISRO is currently looking at the idea of initiating missions to Venus and Jupiter sometime in the future, and possibly putting a robot on the surface of Mars. A 23% increase in ISRO's budget was also announced recently – who knows what our homegrown scientists will do next!

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