Thiruvananthapuram. 15 February 2017. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched 104 satellites, in a single launch, on board India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ‘PSLV-C37 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota. These satellites include – (i) India’s Cartosat-2 Series Satellite (weighing 714 kg) as primary payload, (ii) two Indian Nano-Satellites viz., INS-1A & 1B (together weighing 18.1 kg) and (iii) 101 foreign nano-satellites (together weighing 645.9 kg) from six countries as co-passengers.

Out of the 104 satellites launched in this mission, 101 nano satellites were from foreign countries viz. Israel (1), Kazakhstan (1), The Netherlands (1), Switzerland (1), UAE (1) and USA (96). These nano satellites from foreign countries were launched under a commercial arrangement between Antrix Corporation Limited (Antrix), the commercial arm of ISRO and the foreign customer.

Antrix has earned a revenue of about half of the cost of launch vehicle in terms of foreign exchange.
After Chandrayaan-1 and India’s first interplanetary mission ‘Mars Orbiter Mission’, the feasibility of future inter-planetary missions to Mars and Venus are under discussion and presently a study team is exploring various options and opportunities for such missions. The study team’s recommendations will be reviewed by Advisory Committee for Space Sciences (ADCOS) for further considerations.