Some more detail about the payloads:<p><a href="http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/06/22/pslv-c34/" rel="nofollow">http://spaceflightnow.com/2016/06/22/pslv-c34/</a><p>This launch includes 12 Earth imaging satellites from Planet (<a href="https://www.planet.com/pulse/flock-2p-launches-successfully-on-pslv/" rel="nofollow">https://www.planet.com/pulse/flock-2p-launches-successfully-...</a>) and a second generation satellite from Google's Terra Bella.
> The chairman of the state-run Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), Kiran Kumar, told the NDTV news channel that launching 20 satellites in a single mission was like "allowing birds to fly in space".<p><i>'What, what does that mean?'</i><p>> "Each of these small objects that you are putting into space will carry out their own activity, which is independent of the other, and each of them will live a wonderful life for the finite period for which they have been designed," he said, ahead of the launch.<p><i>'Oh! That was... surprisingly poetic.'</i>
There will be naysayers when a second or third world country achieves a milestone. Inspite of similar feats done before by developed nations, this is huge for developing economies. Similar thing happened when the earlier Prime Minister of India announced that India will launch a Mars mission within a year at a fraction of cost at what NASA or ESA would do it.
Most people laughed at it, and said it's impossible and what not. But guess what, India did send a successful Mars mission that's orbiting the red planet right now. Since then I take 'Expert' HN comments with a pinch of salt. Sometimes HN acknowledges a feat only when done by Elon Musk, NASA or ESA.
Out of curiosity: how do you launch 20 satellites like this without danger of collisions? I guess you accelerate between deploying each satellite to slightly change the orbit?
As an Indian and personal supporter of the Indian space program, I don't see this as a feat in the international sense.<p>What was the technological leap? ISRO could have done this few years back as well. Its just that the payload combination clicked this time.<p>By bragging about things like these we merely betray our jingoism. And what's more when a real technological feat happens it would be drowned out because we gloated over things like this.<p>Also I hope many of the posters here are seriously thinking about giving to ISRO or working for them. ISRO could seriously use more tech talent.
I wouldn't say that India is a "major player" in the satellite launch market yet, considering the reliability record of its rockets:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_Satellite_Launch_Vehicle#Launch_history" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geosynchronous_Satellite_Launc...</a><p>They're uninsurable for commercial telecom satellite launches. The PSLV is slightly better but also has a much smaller market.
People playing Kerbal Space Program [1] have been doing multiple satellite launches for a while.<p>But the more serious point is that we now have an entire generation of kids growing up learning about rocket science. It's exciting to see what they will do with this knowledge when they grow up.<p>See:
* <a href="https://youtu.be/4WP4yICiZno" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/4WP4yICiZno</a><p>* <a href="https://youtu.be/fEtgo4M7Z8g" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/fEtgo4M7Z8g</a><p>* <a href="http://imgur.com/a/WjGNH" rel="nofollow">http://imgur.com/a/WjGNH</a><p>[1] <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/KerbalSpaceProgram/</a>
That is an aged political view of the world. Nowadays, a third world country is where you can die of disease, infection, etc. by drinking water due to lack of sanitation. Where infrastructure is missing almost completely, and where the majority of people live below international poverty lines (no, US families with 3 bedroom houses and loans to pay are not below the international poverty line. People sleeping in their newpaper-stand that they also work from are below such line.)<p>Clean and safe menstrual pads, clean water, infrastructure, education, controlled agriculture. These are pillars of progress. Space programs are impressive, but are of very little consequence when half the population is so poor, they crap on the streets in plain sight at daylight. Meanwhile women are ashamed to hang their sanitary pads in the sun to properly disinfect them due to 3rd world superstitions about cleanness and evil spirits. There are grown men in India who don't even know that women have periods. Others bury their dead in the Ganges while downstream the same water is used for cooking and drinking.<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/30/idia-sanitary-pad-revolution-menstrual-man-periods-waste-problem" rel="nofollow">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/30/idia-s...</a><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalam_Muruganantham" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arunachalam_Muruganantham</a><p><a href="http://hazlitt.net/blog/india-has-toilet-problem-not-poop-problem" rel="nofollow">http://hazlitt.net/blog/india-has-toilet-problem-not-poop-pr...</a>