ISRO Makes History with 100th Rocket Launch from Andhra’s Sriharikota; GSLV-F15 Places NVS-02 Satellite into Orbit
ISRO made a remarkable feat today by successfully launching their rocket, GSLV-F15 carrying the NVS-02 at Sriharikota. This was its 100th rocket mission.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) made a remarkable feat today, 29th January 2025 by successfully launching their rocket, GSLV-F15 carrying the NVS-02 at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
ISRO's rocket mission
This was ISRO’s 100th rocket mission carrying a second-generation satellite for India's navigation system.
Union Minister Jitendra Singh wrote on X (formerly Twitter): “It’s a privilege to be associated with the Department of Space at the historic moment of this record feat. Team #ISRO, you have once again made India proud with successful launch of GSLV-F15 / NVS-02 Mission. From a humble beginning by Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan and few others, it has been an amazing journey.”
This marks ISRO’s first mission in 2025. The satellite was "precisely injected into the required (GTO) orbit. This mission is the 100th launch which is a very significant milestone," said ISRO chairman V Narayanan, after the launch.
Narayanan took the lead of ISRO on January 14 this year. Earlier, he was the director of the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC).
Incidentally, the first launch from Sriharikota was on August 10, 1979, when an experimental flight Satellite Launch Vehicle-3 (SLV-3 E10) carrying the Rohini Technology Payload took off from the facility. Former president A P J Abdul Kalam was the Director of that mission by ISRO. However, the first major success from the port was the 1980 launch of the Rohini satellite.
Today’s launch was conducted after a 27-hour countdown and the 50.9-metre tall rocket took off at around 6.23 am from the second launch pad in Sriharikota. This comes after the success of the GSLV-F12 mission carrying navigation satellite NVS-01 on May 29, 2023.