ISRO Makes History, Launches 104 Satellites With Single Rocket (indiatimes.com)

neo12 writes: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) made history by launching 104 satellites in a single launch. The lift-off of PSLVC 37 at 9.28 am from Sriharikota was a perfect one. In 28 minutes, all 104 satellites were successfully placed into the Earth's orbit. 101 of the 104 satellites belong to six foreign countries, including 96 from the U.S. and one each from Israel, the UAE, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Kazakhstan. According to Times of India, "Russian Space Agency held a record of launching 37 satellites in one go during its mission in June 2014. India previously launched 23 satellites in a single mission in June 2015."

Comments

An example for rest of the nation.

[kamathln]

If only the rest of the nation was as effecient as ISRO!

Re: An example for rest of the nation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen their train system? They have a much higher passenger to vehicle ratio.

Re: An example for rest of the nation.

[kavuri]

In Seattle, single occupants get the entire bus to themselves.

what a waste of resources

Re:An example for rest of the nation.

[Joce640k]

Donald Trump will soon put a stop to this.

96 American satellites had to be launched by a third world country? That doesn't make America look great.

Adding to space junk, satellite by satellite

[hughbar]

This is great, technically speaking. However, here's a little article from the BBC on the current space junk problem: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scie... Just look at the statistics at the bottom of the article.

We've managed to fill near-earth with almost as much rubbish as the surface, the actual atmosphere and (more recently reported) the depths of the sea: https://www.theguardian.com/en...

I love tech, but we need urgently to work on its by-products.

Re:Adding to space junk, satellite by satellite

[quenda]

We've managed to fill near-earth with almost as much rubbish as the surface, ...

Not been to India, have you?

among the launched birds...

[Anonymous Coward]

Among the foreign satellites, 88 cube satellites belonged to San Francisco-based earth imaging startup Planet. With the launch, the company has increased its fleet to 143 satellites which will soon begin capturing images of the earth's entire landmass, including India, every day.

so, just another 88 spy satellites?

yup.

https://www.planet.com/markets...

Not a space junk problem

[dbIII]

Not a space junk problem:
1/ They won't stay up for many years, they don't have the fuel to do it.
2/ We know exactly where every one of them is, where they are going and can work out where they will be at any time for weeks ahead within a very small margin of error.

Anything else you want cleared up? I'm no rocket scientist but I had a good one explain the pathetically easy stuff to me a few decades back.

Re:Not a space junk problem

[pslytely psycho]

The problem has grown considerably in a couple of decades, I didn't mean to imply it was incorrect, as we haven't yet had a problem, just that we are fast approaching the point where it will become a major problem for launches. It takes very little to critically damage a spaceship, especially at orbital speeds.

NASA is taking it seriously.

We currently track over 500,000 pieces of space debris. There are many times that amount of smaller, untrackable objects, to small to track, to large to shield against. It took 40 years to put 10,000 softball size objects into orbit, it took only 10 more to double that.

There have fortunately only been a handful of collisions. But it does get more likely each year.

I wasn't trolling you, merely pointing out the problem is much less simple than it was a couple of decades ago and getting worse, as much of it is in high orbits that take decades or longer to decay.
I think you may enjoy these links.

My sources:

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html

https://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/

Very interesting reading. Have a good one dblll.

Fantastic achievement by ISRO

[kavuri]

Awesome achievement. Trying to imagine the kind of brains behind this feat given the meager financial resources they have to deal with

Re:Fantastic achievement by ISRO

[Gavagai80]

The UK "civilized" India by taking what had been the largest, most thriving economy on the planet with thousands of years of rich culture admired by Europeans, and turning it into a poverty-stricken corrupt backwater?

Well done!!

[manojkg]

Congratulations team !! .... Well done

Only for three to five years until they deorbit

[raymorris]

88 of the satellites are in an orbit less than 500KM altitude. Due to drag from the thermosphere, they'll gradually slow down and fall to a lower altitude. They'll break up and burn up at about 80KM three to five years from now.

Why so negative?

[qaqa]

Whenever there's a story / discussion involving India, comments on Slashdot are almost always overwhelmingly negative with "ad-hominem" attacks all around. For example, this discussion thread does not have a single comment discussing the technical aspects of the launch - a launch of 100+ satellites is bound to have some interesting technical challenges which can be discussed. Instead comments are lame jokes about H1Bs and comments on how India shouldn't spend money on space missions. Slashdot was supposed to be a "news for nerds" site, where the nerds can actually discuss technology. It's sad to see what it has degenerated into.

Re:North Korea

[SharpFang]

Depends on orbit, but yes, look up Kessler Syndrome.