The high-resolution radar imaging satellite, EOS-09, will monitor Earth’s surface under all weather conditions, day or night
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has rolled out its workhorse PSLV for its 101st mission from Sriharikota this week. The Earth observation satellite – EOS-09 – will be launched early morning on 18 May and is expected to enhance the country’s space-based surveillance capabilities.
On Thursday, the rocket was moved from the Payload Integration Facility (PIF) to the Mobile Service Tower (MST) at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, for further integration. The PSLV-C61/EOS-09 is scheduled to take off precisely at 5:59 am this Sunday.
Watch this timelapse of PSLV-C61 / EOS-09 — marking ISRO’s 101st launch — as PSLV is moved from the Payload Integration Facility (PIF) to the Mobile Service Tower (MST) at SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota for further integration.
A step closer to launch on 18 May at 5:59 IST!#PSLVC61… pic.twitter.com/9uEI4oZzlo— ISRO (@isro) May 15, 2025
Equipped with a C-band synthetic aperture radar, the imaging satellite will be injected into a Sun-synchronous orbit, from where it will provide high-resolution images of the Earth’s surface under all-weather conditions, day or night. The data will be crucial for sectors such as agriculture, disaster response, urban planning, and national security. The previous EOS-08 was launched aboard the third developmental flight of the SSLV last August.
This is one of several key missions ISRO has lined up over the next two months. Among them is the Test Vehicle (TV-D2) mission, designed to simulate an abort scenario and demonstrate the Gaganyaan crew escape system. The mission will also include sea recovery operations for the crew module to validate procedures planned for India’s first human spaceflight.
Then there is the much-awaited launch of the NISAR satellite – a key collaboration between ISRO and NASA. The satellite will be launched aboard the GSLV-F16 to study Earth’s ecosystems and natural hazards using dual-frequency radar data, combining NASA’s L-band payloads with ISRO’s S-band contributions.
