ISRO’s First Launch of 2025 Marks Historic 100th Milestone

With its first launch of the year, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Wednesday marked a major milestone—completing 100 launches.

The agency successfully placed a second-generation navigational satellite into orbit from the Sriharikota space centre in Andhra Pradesh.

The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F15) carried the NVS-02 satellite, a key addition to India’s expanding navigation network.

With this mission, ISRO has now launched a total of 548 satellites weighing 120 tonnes. Of these, 433 satellites, weighing 23 tonnes, belonged to foreign nations.

This was also the first launch under the chairmanship of Dr. V. Narayanan. Following the mission’s success, he paid tribute to space pioneers Vikram Sarabhai, Satish Dhawan, and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The NVS-02 is the second satellite in the next-generation Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (IRNSS).

It features an indigenous atomic clock, addressing a critical issue from the previous generation—some older satellites had stopped providing location data due to malfunctioning atomic clocks.