India is expected to have one more eye or spy in the sky, RISAT-1B, also known as EOS-09, a radar imaging satellite that can see through the clouds, on 18 May. The spacecraft will be launched with its Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), said a source.

“The launch date is fixed tentatively,” the source told Orbital Today, not wanting to be named.

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The new satellite is expected to enhance India’s all-weather Earth observation capabilities, with potential applications in agriculture, disaster monitoring, and national security.

With RISAT-1B being the main payload, there will be smaller satellites piggybacking on it.

The all-weather satellite RISAT-1B’s main focus during its life span will be land observation with its C-band synthetic aperture radar (SAR). Weighing about 1,710 kg, the RISAT-1B will be injected into Sun Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of about 529 km.

This will be the seventh RISAT series satellite launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The first RISAT satellite RISAT-2 was launched in 2009.

Another launch is ahead

The Indian space agency is also gearing up for another satellite launch with SAR in June.

ISRO is slated to launch the NISAR (NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar) satellite, a joint initiative of India and the US. While equipped with advanced synthetic aperture radar, NISAR is a science-focused satellite, designed for environmental monitoring and disaster response, not for surveillance.

A first-of-its-kind satellite, NISAR, will have a dual band to measure land deformation from earthquakes, landslides, and volcanoes, producing data for science and disaster response.

Twice every 12 days, the NISAR satellite will scan nearly all of Earth’s land and ice surfaces to measure changes in the planet’s ecosystems, growth and retreat of its land and sea ice, and deformation of its crust.

ISRO identified science and applications that were complementary to the primary mission objectives: agricultural monitoring and characterization, landslide studies, Himalayan glacier studies, soil moisture, coastal processes, coastal winds, and monitoring hazards.