Record Breaking Launch in GIFs

Hold onto your butts. (Photo: ISRO)

On Valentine’s Day the world witnessed ISRO’s historic launch of 104 lil’ satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in India. This is their story. In GIFs:

Main stack getting trucked. (Video: ISRO)

Easy does it… easy does it… (Video: ISRO)

Fairing encapsulation in progress! (Video: ISRO)

Mission control, at the ready. (Video: ISRO)

Ignition. (Video: ISRO)

Liftoff. (Video: ISRO)

Burn, baby burn. (Video: ISRO)

To infinity! And beyond! (Video: ISRO)

Don’t worry, it’s supposed to look this way… (Video: ISRO)

Nerves of steel from team Planet. (Video: ISRO)

Jettisoning of side strap boosters. (Video: ISRO)

Director of Comms, as played by Matthew McConaughey. (Video: ISRO)

Third stage separation (Video: ISRO)

MC can chill now. (Video: ISRO)

Primary payload, Cartosat-2 and two other Indian nanosats deployed (Video: ISRO)

After reaching orbit, our Flock 3P Dove satellites finally see the light.

Only one? (Video: ISRO)

Jk, more like 88. (Video: ISRO)

A little recommended listening to pair with the next few GIFs.

“A light hits the gloom on the gray…” (Video: ISRO)

“… and the light that you shine can’t be seen?” (Video: ISRO)

The Chief of Quality looks on (Video: ISRO)

Many thanks to the hard work of the ISRO scientists who made the many dreams of the Planet team a reality.

Now get some rest. Ya’ll deserve it.

Raise a glass (Video: ISRO)

Thank you to the team at ISRO for the footage. You can view the launch in its entirety here, and the onboard camera footage here.

Special thanks to Timothy Kempf for the GIFit! Chrome extension, without which none of these GIFs would be possible.

And all of my love to singer-songwriter: Seal.