India launches country's 100th satellite and 30 microsats

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched the country's 100th satellite - the advanced remote sensing "Cartosat-2" from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Andhra Pradesh's Sriharikota on Friday.

"During the last PSLV launch we had problems, today what has happened proves that the problem was properly addressed and rectified. Happy to give this new year gift to the country," AS Kiran, ISRO chairman said after the launch.

However, he also added that after 100 successes there can still be failures. "We should learn from past mistakes. We have made rigorous changes after the failure."

The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - PSLV-C40 is also carrying a nano-satellite and a micro-satellite both termed as "technology demonstrators indicating significant stride towards miniaturization" by ISRO. The foreign payloads include 3 microsatellites and 25 nano-satellites from Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA.

My heartiest congratulations to @isro and its scientists on the successful launch of PSLV today. This success in the New Year will bring benefits of the country's rapid strides in space technology to our citizens, farmers, fishermen etc.

The satellites will be placed into two orbits- thirty of the satellites in an orbit of 550 km, and one 359-km above the Earth.