India gets ‘eye in sky’ as ISRO launches first imaging sat into orbit

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Friday launched India’s first imaging satellite from geosynchronous orbit. The satellite, which is intended for civil and military purposes, will allow the country to continuously watch any region of the Earth without any time gap from an altitude of 36,000 km.

The satellite, GISAT-1A, also called EOS-05, was sent up on the GSLV-F17 rocket, the 19th flight of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). The GSLV-F17 vehicle has placed the EOS-05 satellite into a sub-geosynchronous transfer orbit (Sub-GTO).

India’s attempt to place a geo-imaging satellite (GISAT-1) with its GSLV-F10-EOS-3 mission did not succeed in August 2021. While the rocket blasted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota to launch Earth Observation Satellite EOS-3, the mission failed after it observed anomalies in the third stage (cryogenic stage). While the performance of the first two stages was normal, the ignition did not take place due to a technical anomaly. GISAT-1A is the programme’s second attempt to place the imaging satellite into geosynchronous orbit.

ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said that the GSLV-F17 vehicle has successfully and precisely injected EOS-05 into the intended and required orbit. “The satellite was in perfect health after the injection. The mission is a great achievement for India’s space programme,” he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that the growing partnership between ISRO and Indian industry is adding new strength and scale to India’s space programme and expanding India’s capabilities across the entire space ecosystem.

He called the launch of the imaging satellite another outstanding achievement by ISRO and a proud moment for the nation.

“The successful launch of GSLV-F17 carrying EOS-05, India’s first imaging satellite, from geosynchronous orbit is a reflection of the excellence, innovation and growing capabilities that define India’s space sector,” Modi said.

Union Minister Jitendra Singh called the launch a giant leap for India in space. “EOS-05 is a state-of-the-art Earth-observation satellite and India’s first imaging satellite from geosynchronous orbit, enabling advanced imaging across visible, infrared, multi-spectral and hyperspectral bands. With the visionary leadership of PM Narendra Modi, India’s space capabilities continue to scale new heights, strengthening our position as a global space power,” he said.

EOS-05 carries a 700 mm telescope and is intended for applications including real-time disaster monitoring, agriculture, forestry and environmental monitoring. The spacecraft’s capabilities also support strategic observation requirements.

Lt Gen AK Bhatt (retd), Director General, Indian Space Association (ISpA), said the geosynchronous imaging capabilities of the EOS-05 satellite would enable persistent, high-frequency observation of large regions rather than relying only on periodic satellite revisits, which is increasingly critical for India.

“This can be strategically valuable for tracking rapidly evolving weather systems, floods and forest fires, monitoring agriculture and natural resources, and strengthening situational awareness across India’s land and maritime domains. The real opportunity now lies in translating this rich, frequent satellite data into actionable intelligence through India’s private space and geospatial ecosystem. This mission also reaffirms the deepening partnership between ISRO and India’s private space industry, whose components and expertise increasingly power such national systems,” he said.

Ananth Technologies has made significant contributions to the mission through the supply of critical avionics, electronics and spacecraft subsystems. For the GSLV-F17 launch vehicle, it supplied 28 packages covering key functions across the launch vehicle, including power management, stage processing and command execution, communication bus extension, reaction control, telemetry, data acquisition, level sensing and related avionics functions.

Amit Kumar, Co-Founder & COO, Suhora Technologies, said that EOS-05’s persistent, wide-area coverage holds particular promise for maritime surveillance, a potential game changer for tracking vessel activity, illegal fishing and maritime security, alongside faster detection of floods, fires and infrastructure changes.