India is reaching for a milestone in space: on the night of September 4, 2026, the GSLV-F17 rocket is set to deploy the EOS-05 Earth observation satellite – the country’s first imaging satellite in a geosynchronous orbit. Liftoff is scheduled for 21:25 UTC from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota; the outcome was still open at press time.
An eye fixed permanently on India
Unlike satellites in low orbit that only pass briefly over a region, EOS-05 will hover some 36,000 kilometers up, appearing to stand still above the subcontinent. Its optical system – a Ritchey-Chrétien telescope with multispectral and hyperspectral cameras – is designed to image selected areas every five minutes and the entire landmass every 30 minutes under cloud-free conditions. That yields near-real-time pictures no conventional Earth observer in deep orbit can deliver.
A tool for disaster response and agriculture
The persistent view is aimed above all at rapid reaction: floods, cyclones and wildfires can be spotted earlier, while crop and water resources are monitored continuously. EOS-05 is the second satellite in the GISAT series. The first, EOS-03, was lost during launch in 2021 when the third stage of the GSLV-F10 failed. That makes this flight a test of confidence for the GSLV, nicknamed the “Naughty Boy.”
A provisional status
ISRO confirmed that the rocket had been moved to the launch pad and that the countdown was under way. Whether EOS-05 first reaches the Sub-GTO and later its geosynchronous target orbit was open at the time of publication. Success would place India in the small club of nations operating geostationary imaging satellites – an important signal for its launch program after a string of setbacks.
Sources: ISRO – GSLV-F17/EOS-05 Mission, Space.com, Wikipedia: EOS-05.
