Isro to launch earth observation, nine commercial satellites in November

The Indian Space Research Organisation will launch an Indian earth observation satellite and nine commercial satellites in the afternoon of November 7.

This will be the first launch of 2020 from India’s only spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

“India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle in its 51st mission, will launch EOS-01 as a primary satellite along with nine international customer satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The launch is tentatively scheduled at 1502 hours IST on November 07, 2020, subject to weather conditions,” a statement from the space agency said.

The only other Indian satellite launched this year was the heavy-communication satellite GSAT 30, which was launched from Kourou, French Guiana, by the commercial launcher Arianespace.

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A scheduled launch of an earth imaging satellite in March was postponed and did not take place because of the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The pandemic has hampered several big-ticket projects that were planned for 2020 and the next year. India was to launch its first solar mission in the first half of the year; a third lunar mission with just the lander and the rover was also to take place either in the end of 2020 or the first half of the next year.

The human spaceflight programme, announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his Independence day speech in 2018, was to attempt its first unmanned human-rated vehicle launch in December 2020.