{"id":65281,"date":"2026-09-03T12:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/?guid=6cdc35da107f31b38dd8b1c94d806129"},"modified":"2026-09-03T12:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T12:00:00","slug":"watch-india-launch-its-1st-geosynchronous-earth-imaging-satellite-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/2026\/09\/03\/watch-india-launch-its-1st-geosynchronous-earth-imaging-satellite-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Watch India launch its 1st geosynchronous Earth-imaging satellite today"},"content":{"rendered":"\n                            \n                            <article>\n                                <div class=\"youtube-video\" data-nosnippet ><div class=\"video-aspect-box\"><iframe data-lazy-priority=\"high\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/Q9OdYc3KpEw\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div><\/div><p>India plans to notch a spaceflight milestone today (Sept. 3), and you can watch the action live.<\/p><p>A GSLV Mark II <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/29295-rocket-history.html\"><u>rocket<\/u><\/a> is scheduled to launch an Earth-imaging satellite toward <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/29222-geosynchronous-orbit.html\"><u>geosynchronous orbit<\/u><\/a> \u2014 something India has never done successfully \u2014 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre today at 5:25 p.m. EDT (2:55 a.m. on Sept. 4 India Standard Time).<\/p><p>You can watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/indian-space-research-organization.html\"><u>Indian Space Research Organisation<\/u><\/a>, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Q9OdYc3KpEw\" ><u>directly via ISRO<\/u><\/a>. Coverage will start 30 minutes before liftoff.<\/p><figure class=\"van-image-figure  inline-layout\" data-bordeaux-image-check ><div class='image-full-width-wrapper'><div class='image-widthsetter' style=\"max-width:2560px;\"><p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.25%;\"><img id=\"nRuFVJbmNN8vhM75AUpaeH\" name=\"HRIkRD1bsAAlcDm\" alt=\"a big white rocket stands on a launch pad beneath a cloudy sky\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/nRuFVJbmNN8vhM75AUpaeH.jpg\" mos=\"\" align=\"middle\" fullscreen=\"\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1440\" attribution=\"\" endorsement=\"\" class=\"inline\"><\/p><\/div><\/div><figcaption itemprop=\"caption description\" class=\" inline-layout\"><span class=\"caption-text\">An Indian GSLV Mark II rocket topped with the EOS-05 Earth-observation satellite stands on the pad before its planned Sept. 3, 2026 launch. <\/span><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: ISRO)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure><p>The GSLV (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) Mark II is a three-stage rocket that stands 170 feet (52 meters) tall. The vehicle debuted in 2010 and has 12 flights under its belt to date, 10 of them successful. (Its predecessor, the GSLV Mark I, flew six times between 2001 and 2010, with two launch failures.)<\/p><p>On today's flight, the GSLV Mark II will send up EOS-05, a 5,218-pound (2367 kilograms) satellite designed to study our planet from a very high perch.<\/p><p>\"EOS-05 is a state-of-the-art Earth observation spacecraft,\" ISRO officials wrote in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.isro.gov.in\/media_isro\/image\/index\/GSLVF17_EOS05\/GSLV_F17_EOS_05_Mission_Brochure_31082026_Revized.pdf\" ><u>press kit<\/u><\/a> for today's launch. \"It is India\u2019s first-ever imaging satellite from geosynchronous orbit.\"<\/p><p>Geosynchronous orbit (GEO) lies 22,236 miles (35,786 kilometers) up, where orbital speed matches Earth's rotational speed. Spacecraft at this altitude can therefore \"hover\" over a particular patch of our planet, making it a popular destination for weather, communications and spy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/24839-satellites.html\"><u>satellites<\/u><\/a>.<\/p><p>EOS-05's \"ability to maintain persistent coverage could support monitoring of the Indian subcontinent, including remote border areas, strategic assets, severe weather and environmental events,\" <a href=\"https:\/\/economictimes.indiatimes.com\/news\/defence\/isros-launch-of-indias-first-imaging-satellite-will-help-keep-a-permanent-eye-on-its-border-from-36000-km-away\/articleshow\/133716114.cms?from=mdr\" ><u>The Economic Times wrote<\/u><\/a> on Wednesday (Sept. 2). \"The satellite is intended for both civilian and military applications.\"<\/p><iframe src=\"https:\/\/content.jwplatform.com\/players\/xkjeXESf.html\" id=\"xkjeXESf\" title=\"Blastoff! Powerful NISAR Earth-observing satellite launched by India and NASA\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"auto\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><p>India tried to get an Earth-observing satellite to GEO once before \u2014 in August 2021, when a GSLV Mark II launched the EOS-03 spacecraft. But the rocket experienced an anomaly with its third stage, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/india-rocket-launch-fails-eos-03-satellite-lost\"><u>the satellite was lost<\/u><\/a>. <\/p><p>The rocket bounced back from that failure in May 2023 and is currently riding a streak of four consecutive successful launches.<\/p><p>Today's liftoff will be the third orbital mission for India in 2026. The others were flown by ISRO's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/india-eos-n1-military-satellite-15-payloads-pslv-launch\"><u>failed to deliver 16 satellites to orbit<\/u><\/a> in January, and Skyroot Aerospace's Vikram-1 rocket, which aced the nation's <a href=\"https:\/\/www.space.com\/space-exploration\/launches-spacecraft\/skyroot-aerospace-india-first-private-orbital-launch-vikram-1\"><u>first-ever private orbital launch in July<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n                                                            <\/article>\n                            \n                        ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India aims to launch an Earth-imaging satellite toward geosynchronous orbit today (Sept. 3) \u2014something it has never done successfully \u2014 and you can watch the action live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":587,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2799,1263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-65281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-launches-amp-spacecraft","category-space-exploration"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/587"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65281"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65282,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65281\/revisions\/65282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoo.central12.com\/fugic\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}