ISRO started the new year by launching a satellite called XPoSat using the PSLV-C58 rocket on January 1, 2024. The rocket took off at 9:10 a.m. from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and, 22 minutes later, put XPoSat into a low orbit towards the east. This was the 60th mission for the PSLV.

“On January 1, 2024 yet another successful mission of the PSLV has been accomplished. The PSLV-C58 has placed the primary satellite at the XPoSat in the desired orbit of 650 km with six-degree inclination,” ISRO Chairman S. Somnath said after the successful launch.

XPoSat is ISRO's first scientific satellite for studying X-rays from space with a focus on polarization measurements. It has two main tools: POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays) created by Raman Research Institute in Bengaluru, and XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) developed by the Space Astronomy Group of URSC in Bengaluru.

India achieved a significant milestone with the successful launch of XPoSAT. Now, India is the second country in the world to send a space observatory to study things like black holes and neutron stars in the universe.