ISRO completes 100th mission by successful PSLV rocket launch

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) completed its 100th space mission by successfully blasted off the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle C-21 rocket into space. The launch was made from Sriharikota in the Nellore district of Andhra Pradesh. The PSLV C-21 rocket ferried two dollar-paying foreign passengers – a French Earth observation satellite Spot 6 and a Japanese micro satellite Proiteres into polar orbit.

India’s space journey began in the mid-1960s with rockets from Thumba and the launch of Aryabhatta from Russia in 1975, but the first indigenous launch success came with the SLV 3 in 1979. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated scientists of the ISRO for the 100th mission.