ISRO Hits Ton In Style With 100th Sat Launch

Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh): ISRO on Wednesday celebrated its 100th mission with the textbook launch of a navigation satellite that would aid in terrestrial, aerial and maritime navigation and precision agriculture, among others, with a GSLV rocket injecting the payload in the desired orbit.

The early morning launch was the first under ISRO Chairman V Narayanan’s leadership--he assumed office on January 16, 2025, and also the space agency’s maiden venture in 2025.

A beaming Narayanan was hugged and greeted by fellow scientists post the launch. “I am extremely happy to announce from the spaceport of ISRO, that the first launch of this year, 2025, has been successfully accomplished, with GSLV- F15 launch vehicle precisely injecting the navigation satellite NVS-02 in the intended required (GTO) orbit,” he said from the Mission Control Center.

“This mission is the 100th launch from our launchpads, which is a very significant milestone of India,” the ISRO chief added. Further, all the vehicles systems have performed as expected in today’s mission.

Earlier, as the 27.30-hour countdown concluded, the 50.9 metre tall Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket with an indigenous cryogenic upper stage, emanating thick fumes on its tail lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at a prefixed time of 6.23 am on Wednesday.

After travelling for about 19 minutes in dark and cloudy skies, the rocket successfully separated its payload into the desired Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).

The satellite is the second in the series of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) aimed to provide accurate position, velocity and timing to users in the Indian sub-continent as well as to regions about 1,500 km beyond the Indian land mass.