India launches Earth observation satellite

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) - India successfully launched its Earth observation satellite EOS-08 on Friday, aboard the final developmental flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)-D3, according to the Indian Space Agency (ISRO).

"The third developmental flight of SSLV is successful," ISRO announced on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The agency confirmed that SSLV-D3 precisely placed EOS-08 into its intended orbit, marking the successful completion of ISRO’s SSLV Development Project.

The rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in southern India at 9:17 a.m. local time (0347GMT).

According to ISRO, EOS-08 carries three payloads: the Electro-Optical Infrared Payload (EOIR), the Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry payload (GNSS-R), and the SiC UV Dosimeter.

"The EOIR payload is designed for applications such as satellite-based surveillance, disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring, fire detection, volcanic activity observation, and industrial and power plant disaster monitoring," ISRO stated.

The GNSS-R payload demonstrates the capability of using GNSS-R-based remote sensing for applications such as ocean surface wind analysis, soil moisture assessment, cryosphere studies over the Himalayan region, flood detection, and inland waterbody detection. The SiC UV Dosimeter is intended to monitor UV irradiance at the viewport of the Crew Module in the upcoming Gaganyaan mission and serves as a high-dose alarm sensor for gamma radiation.

Gaganyaan is India's forthcoming first manned space mission.