The Indian Space Research Organisation's most bankable rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has created history today by carrying 104 satellites to space in a single launch.

The launch vehicle, lovingly known as 'the Workhorse of ISRO', has put some of India's most celebrated missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission and Space Capsule Recovery Experiment to space.

So, here's all you need to about ISRO's very special PSLV rocket:



The PSLV -- 44m in height and 2.8m in diameter -- made its first flight on September 20, 1993, and has since put 122 satellites successfully in orbit, apart from the 104 it carried to space today.It's not just India that has employed PSLV's masterful capabilities -- 19 other countries have used it to launched more than 40 satellites. Even in today's mission, the PSLV carried 101 foreign satellites -- which in turn helped with the total cost of the project.This is also not the first time that the PSLV has carried multiple satellites -- it has achieved this feat 18 times. Before today, PSLV's personal payload record was in June 2016 when it carried 20 satellites to space at once. The first time it carried a multiple satellite payload was in 1999, when a satellite each of South Korea and Germany along with an Indian satellite.The PSLV is responsible for putting a whole range of Indian satellites in orbit -- like the advanced weather satellite SCATSAT-1. Of the 3 Indian satellites it carried today, one was Cartosat-2 -- ISRO's own earth imaging spacecraft -- which is capable of advanced remote sensing and "providing scene-specific spot imageries for cartographic applications."It is interesting to note here that the PSLV's first launch wasn't successful as a result of a software error. But ISRO learnt quickly from its mistakes and the next launch -- that came just the next year in 1994 -- was a successful "textbook launch".In fact, the PSLV has had to face more than one failures in its course. In 1997, it carried the Indian Remote Sensing Satellite (IRS 1-D) to space and what seemed like an initial success turned out to be a subsequent failure. Due to an anomaly, the IRS 1-D got placed in a lower orbit which turned its powerful stereoscopic cameras, almost myopic. The failure also led to problems with the South Koreans, who needed some convincing before they let their satellite piggybank India's IRS-P4 in a subsequent launch in 1994.The PSLV's payload capacity didn't always support multiple launches, but steady enhances over time have made it steadfast enough to carry 104 satellites like today.All of PSLV's successes are a result of ISRO scientists carefully coding certain manoeuvres into the rocket's flight software pre lift-off. These manoeuvres require careful and accurate calculations and a deep understanding of all things that can possibly go wrong. Once PSLV lifts off, these manoeuvres, and their outcomes, are beyond any scientist's control.