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posted by on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:16AM   Printer-friendly
from the one-for-each-keyboard-key dept.

India's space agency ISRO launched a record 104 satellites on a single rocket from the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh today. India has become the first country to successfully carry so many satellites in a single mission. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C37 is the star of what has been described as an incredible step for the country's space programme.

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."


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  • (Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:21AM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 16 2017, @03:21AM (#467702) Journal

    Someone needs to ticket them for littering.

    We are getting more efficient at tossing space junk into orbit, is all I can see. I wonder when we begin to really regret parking tons of crap in near earth orbits?

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by butthurt on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:38AM

      by butthurt (6141) on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:38AM (#467716) Journal

      Although most of the satellites are very small, they still can track them all.

      I would guess that using one vehicle to launch multiple satellites might result in fewer pieces of debris.

      An American company I hadn't heard of before, Planet Inc., owns 88 of the satellites, and will be photographing the Earth with them. A commenter on Slashdot posted a link to their site:

      https://www.planet.com/markets/defense-and-intelligence/ [planet.com]

  • (Score: 2) by rts008 on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:02AM

    by rts008 (3001) on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:02AM (#467709)

    We need to launch a Pac Man satellite, and use it to train future drone satellite/craft pilots.

    Control(or denial) of the orbitals seem to be a strategic next step.

    Gah! I can't believe my comment started as a joke, and yet made a serious point.(and yes, I'm aware of orbital mechanics, it was meant as a joke)

    I wish Humanity could skip this silly phase, and unite more. I would rather see efforts put towards environmental concerns, and avoiding planetary demise by huge space rocks, etc.

  • (Score: 2) by krishnoid on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:06AM

    by krishnoid (1156) on Thursday February 16 2017, @04:06AM (#467711)

    It's impressive, but not *that* huge a surprise [businessinsider.com].