Indian Rocket Launches 31 Satellites Into Orbit

An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle has launched 31 new satellites into orbit, making a successful comeback after a launch failure last August.

The PSLV rocket lifted off from the Indian Space Research Organisation's Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota on the country's east coast carrying the agency's Cartosat-2F Earth observation satellite and 30 smaller payloads. Liftoff occurred Thursday, Jan. 11, at 10:59 p.m. EST (0359 Jan. 12 GMT), though it was Friday morning local time at the launch site.

The PSLV rocket launch was the first by ISRO since an Aug. 31 failure that doomed an Indian navigation satellite. That failure was traced to a malfunction with the booster's payload fairing separation system, ISRO have said.

A Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launches the Cartosat-2F Earth observing satellite and 30 other smaller payloads into orbit from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota for the Indian Space Research Organisation. Liftoff occurred on Jan. 12, 2018 local time. (Image credit: Indian Space Research Organisation)

The Cartosat-2F satellite launched on the new mission is an Earth-mapping satellite designed to assist land and resource monitoring and management, according to a mission description. It is part of a growing series of Cartosat-2 satellites launched by ISRO. It was delivered successfully into orbit 313 miles (505 kilometers) above Earth.

The 30 other satellites that hitched a ride to space with Cartosat-2F included a wide variety of craft from seven different countries, including the asteroid-hunting Arkyd-6 nanosatellite for the U.S. space mining company Planetary Resources.

"The co-passenger satellites comprise one Microsatellite and one Nanosatellite from India as well as 3 Microsatellites and 25 Nanosatellites from six countries, namely, Canada, Finland, France, Republic of Korea, UK and USA," ISRO officials wrote in a statement. 

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.