ISRO launches 100th satellite: All you need to know about the 'New Year gift' to the country

ISRO, India's premier space research organisation, gave the country a gift that can be best called 'one of its kind'. ISRO launched India's 100th satellite along with 30 others, out of which 28 were from different countries. All the satellites were launched from a PSLV or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

AS Kiran, outgoing Chairman of ISRO said, "During the launch last year, we had problem. But this launch proves that all problems were addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country." Kiran was referring to ISRO's mission to launch spacecraft IRNSS-1H onboard PSLV-39 that was unsuccessful.
 
PM Modi also congratulated the organisation and tweeted, "This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc." "Benefits of India's success are available to our partners! Out of the 31 Satellites, 28 belonging to 6 other countries are carried by today's launch," he added.

As ISRO achieves this milestone, here's everything you need to know about it:

1. The PSLV carried the Indian Cartosat-2 and 28 other satellites from six countries - US, UK, South Korea, Canada, Finland and France.
2. Cartosat-2, the primary satellite of the mission was launched for the observation of Earth and weighs 710 kg.
3. The Cartosat-2 will send in high resolution images that would be used for cartographic purposes, road network monitoring, water distribution and such.
4. The Cartosat-2 has been designed to stay in the orbit for five years.
5. The satellites are to be launched in two orbits and the entire process would take around 2 hours and 21 minutes.
6. Along with Cartosat-2 series, PSLV-C40 also carried 25 nano-satellites, weighing 10 kg each and three micro-satellites, weighing 100 kg each.
7. The Cartosat-2 series was the first to be released from the rocket, followed by the nano-satellites and then the micro-satellites.
8. The combined weight of the satellites was 1,323 kg.
9. The PSLV-C40 stood tall with a height of 44.4 m.