Sriharikota: The Indian Space Research Organisation is preparing to launch the EOS 05 Earth observation satellite aboard the GSLV F17 rocket early on September 4, in a mission that will give India its first imaging satellite designed to operate from geosynchronous orbit.
The launch is scheduled for 2:55 am IST from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan said all launch arrangements are complete.
GSLV F17 is the 19th flight of India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle. ISRO says the rocket will place EOS 05 into a Sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit after liftoff.
EOS 05 is a state of the art Earth observation spacecraft. Its planned geosynchronous orbit, at an altitude of about 36,000 kilometres above Earth, will allow it to observe a large region repeatedly. This is expected to support more frequent monitoring than satellites that operate in lower Earth orbits.
The satellite is intended to strengthen India's Earth observation capabilities. Data from the mission could support applications such as weather monitoring, disaster management, agriculture and environmental observation.
The mission is significant because geosynchronous imaging can provide repeated observations of a broad area. Such observations can be useful when authorities need information about rapidly changing events, including severe weather and natural disasters.
EOS 05 is also linked to an earlier Indian mission that ended unsuccessfully. In August 2021, ISRO launched the EOS 03 satellite aboard the GSLV F10 rocket. The mission failed after an anomaly in the rocket's cryogenic upper stage prevented the satellite from reaching its intended orbit.
EOS 05 is also known as GISAT 1A and is intended to establish the geosynchronous imaging capability that the earlier EOS 03 mission could not deliver.
The upcoming launch also follows the January 2026 failure of another ISRO mission. On January 12, the PSLV C62 rocket carrying the EOS N1 satellite encountered an anomaly during the final part of its third stage. The satellite did not reach its intended orbit.
ISRO has constituted a national level expert committee to review the reason for the PSLV anomaly. The agency continues to list the review among its current updates.
The GSLV has, however, completed successful missions since the 2021 EOS 03 failure. Its previous flight, GSLV F16, successfully launched the NASA ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar satellite, known as NISAR, on July 30, 2025.
The current GSLV F17 mission has been prepared at Sriharikota in recent days. ISRO said the rocket carrying EOS 05 was moved to the launch area on August 28 as preparations continued for the scheduled flight.
The immediate objective on September 4 will be to complete the launch and place EOS 05 into its planned Sub Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit. The spacecraft is then intended to move towards its operational geosynchronous orbit.
If the mission is completed successfully, EOS 05 will add a new capability to India's Earth observation programme. Its ability to repeatedly observe a large region from geosynchronous orbit could provide useful information for monitoring weather, disasters, agriculture and other changes on the Earth's surface.