India has successfully launched 104 satellites from a single rocket, setting a world record. Most of the orbiting hardware was made up of nano-satellites; the smallest weighing just over a kilogram.
Image: picture alliance/Indian Space Research Organisati/ISRO
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India launches record 104 satellites at once
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Scientists at India's southern spaceport of Sriharikota applauded as the head of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that all the satellites had been deployed into orbit on Wednesday.
"My hearty congratulations to the ISRO team for this success," the agency's director Kiran Kumar said to those tracking the progress of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his congratulations on the launch and ejection of satellites, which was covered live on national television channels.
The rocket was launched at 9:28 a.m. (0358 UTC), releasing all 104 satellites into orbit about 30 minutes later.
Its main cargo was a 714 kilogram Indian satellite to be used for Earth observation, but the payload also included 103 smaller "nano satellites," the smallest of which weighed only 1.1 kilograms.
Low-cost launches
Almost all the nano satellites come from other countries, including Israel, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates. The majority, 96 in all, came from the United States.
The launch gives India - whose space agency is famed for trimming costs - the record for launching the most satellites at once, leaping ahead of Russia which launched 39 satellites in a single mission in June 2014.
Breaking the record marks one further achievement for the ISRO, which sent an unmanned rocket to orbit Mars in 2013 at a cost of just $73 million. That figure is a little over a tenth of the cost of NASA's $671 million Maven Mars mission, and is three-quarters the budget of the Hollywood blockbuster Gravity.
So far the EU's Copernicus program has sent three Sentinel satellites to observe Earth - 1A, 2A and 3A. But they're just the first halves. Enter Sentinel-1B, and the first mission becomes whole.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
From the French Riviera
It may be among the strangest places on Earth, but this is where a lot of the European Union's Sentinel satellite equipment is being built for the Copernicus Earth Observation program. In Cannes, Thales Alenia Space is responsible for the Sentinel-1 satellites and a few of the others, too. The contractors include Airbus and many more. Sentinel-1B launches this week, making the first mission whole.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
The story so far
Sentinel-1A was the first to launch on April 3, 2014. Since then, two have followed - Sentinel-2A on June 23, 2015 and Sentinel-3A on February 16, 2016. This shot from Sentinel-3A is one of its earliest. It shows the River Nile and Delta and parts of the Middle East. Using a sea and land surface temperature radiometer (SLSTR), the satellite measures the energy radiating from Earth's surface.
Image: ESA/modified Copernicus Sentinel data 2016
In spectacular true color
This incredibly sharp image shows Red Sea coral reefs off the coast of Saudi Arabia. It was captured by Sentinel-2A on June 28, 2015. The quality of the Sentinel images is a vast improvement on previous satellite missions, such as Envisat. The Sentinel-2 mission is for land monitoring. It provides images of vegetation, soil and water cover, inland waterways and coastal areas.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
In spectacular false color
This false color image of south Khartoum in Sudan was one of the first from Sentinel-2A, captured five days after it arrived in orbit. In the top right corner you can see a bit of the Blue Nile River. The scattered red blotches along the river banks indicate dense vegetation, which is one of the things the satellite monitors. It's a false color image, as color was added to aid interpretation.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
Harbor under threat
This is another great shot from Sentinel-2A, showing Sierra Leone in West Africa. The country's capital, Freetown, is on the peninsula at the bottom of the image. Its economy depends on the natural deep water harbor. But ESA says the estuary is "threatened by a growing population [and] unauthorized housing development," which has caused the removal of many hectares of mangrove vegetation.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
The 'Yuma checkerboard'
Many of the Sentinel images are like works of art. You don't really have to know what's going on to appreciate them. But scientists, policymakers and authorities charged with national security rely on satellite imagery. And given the tools and skills, normal folk can benefit too. The Copernicus program is driven by a principle of Open Data. This shows Yuma in southwestern Arizona.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2015
Tracking change in the Aral Sea
This is the Aral Sea as captured by Sentinel-1A. It's a composite of three radar scans taken between 2014 and 2015. ESA says the Aral Sea is a "striking example of humankind's impact on the environment and natural resources. [...] It has lost around 90 percent of its water volume since 1960 because of Soviet-era irrigation schemes." The different colors show the changes between the scans.
Image: ESA/Copernicus Sentinel data 2014/2015
Meanwhile, Back in Berlin…
Captured by Sentinel-2A, this image shows a vibrant Berlin, the German capital, in exquisite detail. It shows how green the city is, with the Tegeler See and Wannsee on the western side. There's also the former airport, the Tempelhofer Feld, in the lower center of the image, which in summer blooms with people, kites and bikes. All these images can be seen in full: www.esa.int/spaceimages/Images
