ISRO launches EOS-01 today! All you need to know about this earth observation satellite

India has sent its earth observation satellite EOS-01 on Saturday afternoon. This is the first space mission for the country in almost a year. The satellite was launched along with nine satellites from other countries by a PSLV rocket post 3 pm (IST) from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. According to ISRO Chief K Sivan, the mission has been special and unusual. He said since space work cannot be done from home, the team continued to work as per COVID-19 guidelines and did not compromise on quality.

Upon the successful launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also congratulated India’s space industry. “In the time of COVID-19, our scientists overcame many constraints to meet the deadline,” Modi tweeted.

I congratulate @ISRO and India's space industry for the successful launch of PSLV-C49/EOS-01 Mission today. In the time of COVID-19, our scientists overcame many constraints to meet the deadline.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) November 7, 2020

Last year in December, ISRO for the first time sent RISAT-2BR1, which was the first earth observation satellite similar to EOS-01. Post that, in January this year, India sent another communication satellite GSAT-30 in space which was done with the help of Ariane rocket launched from French Guiana.

As the Coronavirus pandemic hit the nation, ISRO’s launch schedule was postponed. It is to note that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has planned around 20 satellite launches this fiscal. This also included high profile missions like Aditya L1 which is India’s first exploratory mission to the Sun. It also planned to launch Gaganyaan mission.

To be sure, EOS-01 is a Radar Imaging Satellite (RISAT) aimed to work alongside RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1 that were launched last year. Initially, EOS-01 was given the name- RISAT-2BR2 as it was supposed to complete the three-spacecraft constellation. These satellites will help provide all-weather round-the-clock service with some high-resolution images. Along with this, the earth observation satellite will help with mapping and monitoring land and forest, along with mapping of resources that include water, minerals. Apart from this, the satellite will observe weather and climate, will do soil assessment, as well as geospatial contour mapping.

Just like RISAT-2B and RISAT-2BR1, EOS-01 will also be using synthetic aperture radars in order to produce high-resolution images of the land. A report by The Indian Express highlighted that radar imaging is quite useful as it remains unaffected by weather, fog, sunlight or clouds. These satellites also operate at low wavelengths. Therefore, the EOS series is considered best when it comes to monitoring urban landscape, imaging of agricultural or forest land.

ISRO noted that EOS-01 applications will be used in the fields of agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. Further, the radar images are also expected to be quite useful for military requirements.