Blitz Bureau
INDIA achieved a significant milestone on January 29 with the 100th liftoff of the GSLV rocket ISRO from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. The GSLV-F15 rocket lifted off at 6.23 a.m., carrying the NVS-02 navigation satellite into space, adding another triumph to the nation’s space exploration achievements.
The In a post on X, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “Congratulations to @isro on the historic 100th launch! This incredible milestone illustrates the vision, dedication and commitment of our scientists and engineers. With the private sector joining hands, India’s space journey will continue to attain new heights.”
Chairman V Narayanan said the national space agency will work to launch 100 missions in the next five years.
The Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) was the first big rocket to liftoff from Sriharikota on August 10, 1979. “… we made a historical achievement,” Narayanan said post-launch. “The 100th launch of ISRO has been successfully carried out with the hard work and teamwork of team ISRO,” he added.
While the 100th launch came in 46 long years, the Chairman said: “In the next five years ISRO will aim to launch 100 missions”.
GSLV-F15 payload fairing had a metallic version with a diameter of 3.4 meters and it placed NVS-02 satellite in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The NVS-02 is part of the secondgeneration satellites for the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) system — India’s own navigation system. This is the 5th satellite of NVS-02. Currently, four of these satellites are operational.
“We got next approval for three satellites also,” said ISRO Chairman. In addition, ISRO has got approvals for a lot of projects — Chandrayan 3 and 4 for launch this year. Narayanan noted that “a lot of missions are lined up for this year”.
