India's space agency ISRO launched 104 satellites on a single rocket from its Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh today on 15th February. This has made India the first country to carry so many satellites in a single mission. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C37 is the backbone of this space program. It was launched at 9.28 am. The countdown began 28 hours ago, said ISRO.

Each of these satellite will be travelling at the speed of more than 27,000 km per hour- 40 times the speed of an average passenger airline. Among these 104 satellites many belong to international clients.

PSLV-C37 is the heaviest version of the PSLV, weighing about 320 tonnes at lift-off and standing tall at 44.4 meters. The main passenger in this bunch of satellite is the Earth-mapping Cartosat 2 series satellite, which weighs 714 kg.

The smaller satellites belong to the countries such as the US, Israel, Kazakhstan, Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. 96 of the satellites among these 104 satellite  belong to the US. Among these 96, 90 satellites called as ‘Doves’ belong to a San Francisco-based company, Planet Inc.

The bunch has 2 ISRO-made Nano satellites which belong to international customers. They weigh around 1,378 kg. The PSLV first launched the Cartosat-2 and then 103 co-passengers were launched  into the polar Sun Synchronous Orbit, about 520 km from the Earth.

This is ISRO's second successful attempt after the launch of 23 satellites in June 2015.