ISRO to launch 83 satellites in one go in 2017

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch 83 satellites into space in one go, aboard a single rocket in January 2017.

This announcement was made during the proceedings of the lower house, Lok Sabha on 30 November 2016. Among the 83 satellites, 3 belong to India while the other 80, weighing 500 kg, belong to five foreign nations including Israel, Netherlands, Kazakhstan, Switzerland and the United States of America.

The launch of these foreign satellites by India is a part of a commercial agreement signed between these countries and Antrix Corporation Ltd, which is the commercial arm and Public sector undertaking of ISRO.

The three Indian satellites that are going to be launched include:

1. Cartosat – 2 series, weighing 730 kg as primary payload
2. INS-IA
3. INS-1B

The second and third satellites in total weigh 30kg.

Going by the size of the project, this mission would be the first of its kind in ISRO’s space history. The last mission that comes just close to this event is when ISRO launched 20 satellites with the PSLV-C34 launch. Similarly, then also the launch included foreign satellites from countries such as Canada, Germany, Indonesia and the United States of America.