NEW DELHI — India’s space agency launched a flock of 104 satellites into space over the course of 18 minutes Wednesday, nearly tripling the previous record for single-day satellite launches and establishing India as a key player in a growing commercial market for space-based surveillance and communication.

The launch was high-risk because the satellites, released in rapid-fire fashion every few seconds from a single rocket as it traveled at 17,000 miles per hour, could collide with one another if ejected into the wrong path.

“They have spent months figuring out how to make an adapter, which will release these small babies into space one after another,’’ said Pallava Bagla, science editor for NDTV, a cable news station.

Wednesday’s launch was being watched closely by firms that place satellites in orbit, because India’s space agency charges substantially less than its competitors in Europe and North America, said C. Uday Bhaskar, director of the Society for Policy Studies, a public policy research group based in New Delhi.

Eighty-eight of the 104 satellites released Wednesday were tiny, weighing about 10 pounds. Called doves, they belong to Planet Labs, a private company based in San Francisco that sells data to governments and commercial entities.

The previous record was set by Russia’s space agency, which launched 37 satellites into orbit with one rocket in 2014.

New York Times