The space agency has also launched nine satellites from customer nations.
(Photo: Twitter/@isro)
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has on Saturday successfully launched its latest earth observation satellite (EOS-01) onboard the PSLV-C49 launch vehicle from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.
The space agency has also launched nine satellites from customer nations.
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This is the space agency’s first launch since a nationwide coronavirus lockdown.
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According to ISRO, EOS-01 is a highly advanced earth observation satellite intended for use in supporting agriculture, forestry and disaster management planning.
An earlier launch of the GSAT-30 telecommunication satellite was completed in January, but that was from a base in French Guinea.
The launch took place at 3.12 PM after a 26-hour countdown. The launch was delayed by 10 minutes due to bad weather and debris in the flight path, ISRO sources told news agency PTI.
“This mission is very special and unusual for ISRO. The space activity cannot be done from ‘work from home’. Each engineer has to be present at the lab. When talking about missions like these, each technician, employee has to work together,” said ISRO Chief K Sivan.
Watch Live: Launch of EOS-01 and 9 customer satellites by PSLV-49 https://t.co/H4jE2fUhNQ
— ISRO (@isro) November 7, 2020
At 3.34 pm ISRO said the customer satellites had separated and been injected into their intended orbits.
Six minutes earlier, ISRO said India’s EOS-01 satellite had separated from the fourth stage of the PSLV rocket and been injected into orbit.
The customer satellites, launched under a commercial agreement with NewIndia Space Limited (NSIL), include four from the United States that are meant for “multi-mission remote sensing”.
Four of the remaining five are from Luxembourg (for maritime applications) and the other is from Lithuania (for technology demonstration).
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