The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched Earth Observation Satellite-8 (EOS-8) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh on Friday. In its message on x, ISRO said, “The third developmental flight of SSLV was successful.
The SSLV-D3 placed EOS-08 precisely into the orbit. This marks the successful completion of ISRO/DOS’s SSLV Development Project. With technology transfer, the Indian industry and NSIL India will now produce SSLV for commercial missions.”
As per ISRO, the six-and-a-half-hour countdown leading to the launch commenced at 2.47 am. This is the third and final developmental flight of the SSLV-D3/EOS-08 mission. The spacecraft is designed for a mission duration of one year.
The primary objectives of the EOS-08 mission include designing and developing a microsatellite, creating payload instruments compatible with the microsatellite bus, and incorporating new technologies required for future operational satellites, an ISRO release said earlier.
Built on the Microsat/IMS-1 bus, the 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 to capture images in the Mid-Wave IR (MIR) and Long-Wave IR (LWIR) bands, both during the day and night, for applications such as satellite-based surveillance, disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring, fire detection, volcanic activity observation, and industrial and power plant disaster monitoring.
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 spacecraft mission configuration is set to operate in a Circular Low Earth Orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 475 km with an inclination of 37.4°, and has a mission life of 1 year.
The satellite has a mass of approximately 175.5 kg and generates power of around 420 W. It interfaces with the SSLV-D3/IBL-358 launch.