Historic day for Sriharikota today; ISRO's 100th launch with 'NavIC'

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The 100th launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, India's pride, will be happening today. The GSLV's F-15 rocket will be lifting off with the NVS 02 satellite for India's navigation system project, 'NavIC'. That historic moment will be happening at 6.23 am from the second launch pad. The 27-hour countdown began at 2.23 am yesterday.

Satellite launches from Sriharikota began in 1979. This will also be the first launch after Dr. V. Narayanan took charge as the chairman of ISRO. 'NavIC' is capable of replacing the US's GPS and China's Beidou. NavIC is now available for military purposes, fishing boats, ships and commercial vehicles. Satellites in the NavIC series began to be launched in 2013.

100th launch, historic moments

• Sriharikota was discovered in 1969 under the leadership of Vikram Sarabhai. Test launch of Rohini rocket on October 9, 1971. First experimental flight with the launch of SLV3 rocket in August 1979
• Inauguration of the first launch pad on September 20, 1993 and the first launch of PSLV rocket. GSLV launch on April 18, 2001
• Inauguration of the second launch pad on May 5, 2005. Chandrayaan-1 on October 22, 2008, launch of the remote sensing satellite series IRNSS navigation satellites on July 1, 2013
• Mangalyaan on November 5, 2013, launch of indigenous cryogenic engine on August 1, 2014. 104 satellites in one mission on 14 February 2017. 28 satellites launched on a single rocket on 1 April 2019
• Agnikul's private launch pad was built on 28 November 2022. Chandrayaan 3 on 14 July 2023, Aditya L1 on 2 September 2023, Human-rated LVM3 on 20 February 2024, Spadex satellite launch on 30 December 2024