The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched their GSLV-F15 carrying the NVS-02 on 6:23 AM at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, marking ISRO’s 100th rocket mission. The mission is also the first for the space agency’s Chairman V Narayanan, who assumed office recently. It is ISRO’s maiden venture this year.

The satellite was “precisely injected into the required (GTO) orbit. This mission is the 100th launch which is a very significant milestone,” Mr Narayanan said in his address post the successful launch.

“In this mission, the data has come; all vehicle systems are normal,” he added.

The first big rocket to liftoff from Sriharikota was the Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) on August 10, 1979, and now nearly 46 years later the Department of Space has hit a century. Till now all big rocket launches at Sriharikota have been by the Indian government.

Earlier on Tuesday, S. Unnikrishnan Nair, Director of India’s main rocket lab the Vikram Sarabhai Space Center, in Thiruvananthapuram said “It is as robust as previous one. Like any other launch. We make every launch robust to the best of our ability. It will be successful.”

This rocket was once dubbed as the ‘naughty boy’ of ISRO since it gave the Indian space agency the worst time of all its menagerie of rockets.