Keypoints:
- EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite and is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support, says ISRO.
- The launch is scheduled for Saturday at 1502 Hrs IST.
On Friday, The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said that the countdown for the launch of PSLVC49 / EOS-01 mission has commenced at 1302 Hrs IST from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota. The launch is scheduled for Saturday at 1502 Hrs IST.
In its 51st mission (PSLV-C49), India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will launch EOS-01 as primary satellite along with nine international customer satellites.
On Friday, ISRO said,”PSLV-C49/EOS-01 Mission: The countdown for the launch of PSLV-C49/EOS-01 mission commenced today at 13:02 Hrs (IST) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR, Sriharikota,”
ISRO says, EOS-01 is an earth observation satellite intended for application in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. It says that the customer satellites are being launched under commercial agreement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL), Department of Space.
The customer satellites include one from Lithuania for technology demonstration, and four each from Luxembourg and USA for maritime applications and multi-mission remote sensing respectively.
On Friday, ISRO said that the countdown for November 7 launch of Earth observation satellite EOS-01 along with nine international customer satellites on board launch vehicle PSLV-C49 has begun.
The proposed launch will be the first space mission for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in 2020.
The nine foreign satellites are from: Lithuania (1-technology demonstrator), Luxembourg (4 maritime application satellites by Kleos Space) and the US (4-Lemur multi mission remote sensing satellites).The other Indian satellites that are ready for launch are GISAT, Microsat-2A and GSAT-12R.
The satellite can take pictures day and night and will be useful for surveillance as well as civilian activities.However, the primary passenger of the 44.5 metre tall PSLV-C49 will be the Indian radar imaging satellite EOS-01 (formerly RISAT-2BR2) with synthetic aperture radar (SAR) that can shoot pictures in all weather conditions.
This time around, the ISRO will be using the PSLV rocket’s DL variant that will have two strap-on booster motors.
This rocket variant was used the first time to put into orbit Microsat R satellite on January 24, 2019.
