India’s PSLV-C49 is carrying its newest earth observation satellite EOS-01 and 9 customer satellites have lifted off from the spaceport on 7th November. The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle or shortly known as PSLV-C49/EOS-01 blasted off from Sriharikota at 3:12 pm at the end of a twenty-six-hour countdown.
The lift-off was primarily and it was normally scheduled for 3:02 pm but it was delayed by 10 mins because of the debris that appeared on the path of the vehicle. This is the 1st mission by the Indian Space Research Organisation or otherwise known as ISRO in 2020.
Image from ISRO
The Indian space agency has put up a live feed of the launch on one of the social media platforms i.e. Twitter. The space organization has further tweeted that every 9 customer satellites were able to separate successfully and have been inoculated into their intentional orbits.
As per ISRO, EOS-01 is envisioned for applications in agriculture, forestry, and disaster management support. The customer satellites are from countries such as Lithuania, Luxembourg, and the United States and the number of satellites from the mentioned countries is 1, 4, 4 respectively. The Indian space agency has said that the customer satellites are being launched under a profitable agreement with NewSpace India Limited, Department of Space.
Due to the pandemic which is COVID-19, the launch viewing gallery stayed closed during the launch.
