India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle PSLV-C49, in its 51st flight today successfully launched EOS-01 along with nine international customer satellites from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.
PSLV-C49 lifted-off at 1511 Hrs IST, after a delay of nine minutes because of inclement weather conditions observed during countdown.
After 15 minutes and 20 seconds, EOS-01 was successfully injected into its orbit. Subsequently, nine commercial satellites were injected into their intended orbits.Of the nine customer satellites one is from Lithuania and 4 each from Luxembourg and the USA.
After separation, the two solar arrays of EOS-01 were deployed automatically and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru assumed control of the satellite.In the coming days, the satellite will be brought to its final operational configuration.
It can also see through clouds. EOS-01 will be used for civil applications in agriculture, forestry, soil moisture, geology, coastal monitoring and flood monitoring.
The customer satellites include 4 each from the USA and Luxembourg and 1 from Lithuania with objectives ranging from multi mission remote sensing to maritime applications and technology demonstration.
This was ISRO’s first satellite launch since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic , which has slowed down all space activities since March.
The last satellite ISRO had launched from Indian soil was PSLV-C48 which also carried a surveillance satellite, Risat-2BR1, on December 11, 2019.
Communication satellite GSAT-30 was the only ISRO satellite launched this year on January 17 but from the European spaceport in French Guyana.After the PSLV-C49 mission, ISRO is targeting to launch PSLV-C50 mission carrying GSAT-12R communication satellite in December.
