ISRO chairman K Sivan had said in June that 10 space missions, being prepared for launch in 2020, have been ‘disturbed’ due to the lockdown

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said on Wednesday that the country will launch its latest earth observation satellite (EOS-01) and nine international customer spacecraft onboard its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle ‘PSLV-C49’ from the spaceport of Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on November 7.

This is the first launch by the ISRO since the coronavirus induced lockdown came into effect in March.

The ISRO wrote on Twitter, “ISRO PSLV-C49 set to launch EOS-01 and nine customer satellites from Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 15.02 hours (IST) on November 7, 2020, subject to weather conditions.”

Meanwhile, the city-headquartered ISRO said in a statement, “The EOS-01 is intended for applications in agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. The launch is tentatively scheduled at 3.02 pm on November 7 subject to weather conditions from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.”

The customer satellites are being launched under commercial agreement with New Space India Limited (NSIL), Department of Space, the ISRO said. It did not give further details.

This will be the 51st mission of ISRO’s workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

The ISRO also said that in view of the strict Coronavirus pandemic norms in place at the launch centre, gathering of media personnel there has not been planned and the viewing gallery will be closed. However, the live telecast of the launch will be available on ISRO website, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter channels.

ISRO chairman K Sivan had said in June that 10 space missions, being prepared for launch in 2020, have been “disturbed” due to the lockdown. Sivan had told PTI in June that the ISRO will make an assessment of the impact of the lockdown on its missions. “Because of this (pandemic), everything got disturbed. We have to make an assessment after the Covid-19 issue is resolved,” he had said.