CHENNAI: India on Wednesday morning created a world record by successfully placing into orbit 104 satellites, including the country's own Cartosat-2earth observation satellite .
The PSLV-XL variant rocket standing 44.4 metre tall and weighing 320 ton tore into the morning skies at 9.28 a.m. with a deep throated growl breaking free of the earth's gravitational pull.
The national space agency set a world record and occupied a unique position among space-faring nations.
The last world record was held by Russia which in 2014 sent 37 satellites in a single launch using a modified intercontinental ballistic missile.
However, ISRO scientists were not willing to attach too much importance to records. They insisted the focus was on maximising the payload capacity and the vehicle capability.
“Though the mission was initially planned to carry 83 satellites, the decision was taken to increase the number to 104 as additional space was available,” ISRO chairman AS Kiran Kumar told Express.
Of the 103 co-passenger satellites, 96 belong to the US, five from international customers of ISRO, including Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates as well as two nanosatellites from India.
(Inputs from IANS)