Isro to launch India's earth observation, nine customer satellites on Nov 7

Isro's PSLVC49, which will be carrying E0S01 and nine international customer satellites, is set to launch from the Sriharikota space port near Chennai. The rocket is at First Launch Pad in Sriharikota ahead of its launch on November 7.

PSLV in its 51st mission (PSLV-C49) will launch EOS-01, the primary satellite, along with nine customer satellites owned by the US (4 satellites), Luxembourg (4), and Lithuania.

The primary satellite is an earth observation vehicle intended for applications in agriculture forestry and disaster management support. The satellite can take pictures both, during the day and the night, and will be useful for surveillance and civilian activities.

The customer satellites are being launched under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL), Isro's new commercial arm.

This will be Isro's first satellite launch amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which has slowed down all space activities since March. 

Isro has lined up a few launches in November and December including the first demonstration test of its new rocket Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) or mini-PSLV by December.

Its last mission launched in India was the RISAT-2BR1 onboard the PSLV C48. After that, in January 2020, the GSAT-30 communication satellite was launched onboard Ariane-5 VA-251. The organisation was also supposed to launch GISAT-1 onboard GSLV-F10 on 5 March 2020, which was postponed due to technical issues.