ISRO's PSLV successfully launches 10 satellites including EOS-1, into orbit

The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has successfully launched 10 satellites to orbit on 7 November. The launch included a new Earth observation satellite and several smaller payloads. ISRO in its statement said that India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, in its fifty-first flight (PSLV-C49), successfully launched EOS-01 as well as nine international customer satellites from the First Launch Pad of Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) SHAR in Sriharikota. [caption id=“attachment_7824041” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”] The PSLV-C44 standing tall on the SHAR launchpad in Sriharikota. Image: ISRO[/caption] An Earth observation satellite, EOS-01 is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. ISRO said that PSLV-C49 lifted-off at 3:11 pm IST. There was a delay of nine minutes from the scheduled launch due to unfavourable weather conditions. After 15 minutes and 20 seconds, EOS-01 was injected into its orbit successfully. Following that nine commercial satellites were injected into their intended orbits as well. The two solar arrays of EOS-01 were automatically deployed and the ISRO Telemetry Tracking and Command Network at Bengaluru assumed control of it. ISRO chairman, Dr K Sivan congratulated both launch vehicles and satellite teams for rising to the occasion amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and stated, “PSLV-C49 successfully placed all ten satellites precisely into their orbit.” The nine other customer satellites, including one from Lithuania, four from Luxembourg and four from the USA were launched under a commercial arrangement with NewSpace India Limited (NSIL). ISRO tweeted about the launch, writing, “All nine customer satellites successfully separated and injected into their intended orbit.” https://twitter.com/isro/status/1325016201009922049?s=20 According to a report in Space.com, the 50th PSLV mission was in December 2019, following which ISRO went on a launch hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.