'44 spacecraft, 42 launch vehicle missions since 2014'

A total of 44 spacecraft missions, 42 launch vehicle missions and 5 technology demonstrators, have been successfully realised, since 2014, till date, officials said on Saturday.

According to the Department of Space, in January 2014, the first successful flight with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage, in the GSLV-D5 launch vehicle was achieved and GSAT-14 was placed into GTO.

Thereafter, in September 2014, India's Mars Orbiter Spacecraft successfully entered an orbit around planet Mars, putting India into a league of select nations which had sent a spacecraft to the Red Planet.

The spacecraft is still functional even after 7 years of operation against the designed life of 6 months and serving the nation with a lot of interesting science data.

In December 2014, the country witnessed the experimental flight of the next generation launch vehicle - the GSLV MKIII.

The LVM3-X/CARE Mission, the first experimental suborbital flight of the vehicle, launched the Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry experiment (CARE).

Among significant milestones, India's second mission to Moon, Chandrayaan-2 was successfully launched on July 22, 2019 on-board GSLV Mk III-M1, first operational flight of this new launch vehicle.

Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter is providing valuable science data for the research community. Thereafter, the launch of PSLV-C48/ RISAT-2BR1 in Dec 2019 marked the 50th launch of PSLV, the workhorse launch vehicle.

Moreover, as part of Gaganyaan programme, new Test Vehicle for testing critical systems is developed. 'Integrated Main Parachute Airdrop Test (IMAT)' of crew module deceleration system was successfully carried out at Babina Field Fire Range (BFFR), Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh on November 18, 2022.

Recently, PSLV-C54 was successfully launched EOS-06 satellite on November 26, 2022 along with Eight Nano-satellites including INDIA-BHUTAN SAT (INS-2B).

(With inputs from IANS)