Late Sunday (Feb. 13), India launched its first space mission in 2022, sending a new Earth observation satellite and two smaller rideshare satellites into space.
At 7:29 p.m., the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle launched the Earth Observation Satellite 4 (EOS-4) into orbit. From a pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, off the coast of the Bay of Bengal, EST (0029 GMT or 6:29 p.m. local time Monday, Feb. 14)
In August 2021, ISRO's previous launch in this class, EOS-03, failed catastrophically during liftoff. According to India's Economic Times, ISRO later revealed the cause was "a failure to ignite the cryogenic stage of the launch vehicle." The PSLV rocket's launch on Sunday went off without a hitch.
"The primary satellite EOS-4 has been put in a very precise orbit by the PSLV C52, and along with that the co-passenger satellites INS-2TD and InspireSat-2D have been placed in the right orbit," ISRO's new Chairman S. Somanath said after the launch. "Congratulations to everybody who worked for this mission."
According to ISRO data, EOS-03 was launched on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket that has yet to fly since the tragedy; the heavy-lift GSLV had last launched in 2018, before the disaster. According to Spaceflight Now, Sunday's launch was the first PSLV launch in nearly a year, due to delays caused by the ongoing pandemic.
According to ISRO, the mission's principal payload, EOS-04, was launched into a sun-synchronous polar orbit at a height of 329 miles (529 kilometers). This type of orbit gives photographs below the satellite a steady light source, making it easier to compare objects on the ground from one observation to the next.
According to ISRO authorities, the satellite safely detached from its upper stage of the PSLV rocket and unfurled its solar arrays shortly after reaching orbit.
"This spacecraft is going to be one of the biggest assets for us to serve the country," Somanath said.
The mission, ISRO added, will "provide high-quality images under all weather conditions for applications such as agriculture, forestry and plantations, soil moisture and hydrology, and flood mapping."
Also on board were two small satellites. The first is student satellite INSPIREsat-1, from the Indian Institute of Space Science Technology in association with the University of Colorado, Boulder. The mission, according to the university, will perform measurements of a zone of the atmosphere known as the ionosphere, to look at superheated gas (plasma) and other dynamics.
The second is an ISRO technology demonstrator satellite (INS-2TD), which will serve as a prelude to the India-Bhutan Joint Satellite Mission (INS-2B). On its launch page, ISRO did not disclose any additional information about either satellite.
According to the Times of India, the moon lander Chandrayaan-3, a sun-studying mission called Aditya-L1, and another Earth observation satellite called EOS-06 or Oceansat-3 are among the other Indian launches scheduled this year.
