Sriharikota: ISRO's state-of-the-art Earth observation spacecraft and the country's first imaging satellite intended for geosynchronous orbit, EOS-05, lifted off from the spaceport from Sriharikota on Friday.
Set to provide real-time imagery and help the nation in areas including agriculture and disaster management, a GSLV-F17 rocket carrying the payload lifted off with the satellite, intended for delivery to the Sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit (Sub-GTO) in the wee hours.
After the completion of a smooth 27-hour countdown, which commenced at 23.30 hours on Wednesday, the rocket, with a 2,367 kg payload mass, lifted off on schedule at 2.55 am from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The odd hour and rain could not deter the enthusiasm of members of the public, as many turned up to cheer the launch.
While several Earth observation satellites operate from low Earth orbit (LEO), the EOS-05 satellite is set to operate at an altitude of roughly 36,000 km above Earth, in geosynchronous orbit, where it will match Earth's rotational speed.
The GSLV-F17 is the 19th flight of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle.
The 3-stage, 51.7 metre rocket, with its third stage being cryogenic, has a lift-off mass of 420.5 tonnes, and the over-2,000 kg satellite is mounted on the rocket's nose cone.
The GSLV-F17/EOS-05 mission is a replacement for the unsuccessful GSLV-F-10/EOS-03 mission of 2021.
An onboard computer aborted that mission 307 seconds into the flight. A probe into the post-flight data indicated that an anomaly in the Cryogenic Upper Stage led to the mission failure, according to ISRO.
The pre-dawn launch on Friday follows a gap of nearly 8 months.
On January 12 this year, ISRO's PSLV-C62 rocket carrying 16 satellites failed to place them in the intended orbit after encountering an ‘anomaly’ in the critical third stage of the launch. It was ISRO's only launch of the year, and the mission failed.
A similar, earlier attempt in May 2025 (PSLV-C61-EOS-09) also did not succeed due to a ‘motor pressure issue’, and there was a fall in the chamber pressure of the motor case.
Days before the launch, ISRO Chairman V Narayanan visited the Tirumala Tirupati Lord Venkateshwara Swamy temple and prayed for the mission's success.