India’s workhorse rocket PSLV-C49 has successfully launched India’s latest Earth Observation Satellite EOS-01 and placed into its intended orbit this afternoon. In a copybook style mission, the launch vehicle also put nine other customer satellites into space.

The weather at the national spaceport in Sriharikota slightly delayed the launch leading to its lift off at 15.12 hours instead of the scheduled time of 15.02 hrs. However, ISRO scientists said, right from the ignition of the vehicle, its flight parameters were accurately coinciding with the projected path.

In just under 15-and-a-half minutes of the ignition of the rocket, the primary satellite EOS-01 was ed in its 575-kilometer Low Earth Orbit. Its solar panels were deployed immediately and the satellite team of the Indian Space Research Organisation ISRO took control of it.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated ISRO and country’s space industry for the successful launch of PSLV-C49/EOS-01 Mission today. He said, scientists overcame many constraints to meet the deadline in the time of COVID-19. Mr. Modi said that nine satellites, including four each from the US and Luxembourg and one from Lithuania, have been launched in the Mission.

The ISRO chief Dr K Sivan congratulated the scientists, engineers and technicians involved in the mission saying it is like a celebration ahead of the festival Deepavali. He said a series of launch missions are now at hand, beginning with a PSLV, the first developmental flight of a new class of rocket called the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle and the GSLV.


The successful PSLV mission has resulted in increased capacity for the user agencies of the nation in viewing the surface of the earth seamlessly for agriculture, forestry and disaster management applications.

ISRO has achieved a resounding success in the year’s first launch from Sriharikota today. The Earth Observation Satellite EOS-01 will form part of a family of such payloads that will enhance the capacity of the nation to view the earth from above in a seamless fashion irrespective of the weather or atmospheric conditions. One of the major highlights of the ISRO chief Dr Sivan’s announcements today is the first development flight of a new booster, that is the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle, which is expected to happen very soon.

At present, India has the tall boy PSLV, the 2-ton class GSLV and the fat boy GSLV-Mark-Three as the rockets under use. What is new with the SSLV is that it can be assembled in just a couple of days and can be used for launching payloads of less weight to low earth orbit or even sun-synchronous orbit, for which the demand is more even from international customers. Its design features enable it to drop several payloads into different orbital heights.