ISRO to Resume Launches in September with GISAT-1A After Seven-Month Pause

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is preparing to resume launches after a seven-month pause, with the Earth-observation satellite GISAT-1A set to lift off in the first week of September. Launches were put on hold in January while the agency investigated two successive failures of its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), leaving GISAT-1A and the navigation satellite NVS-03 waiting at the Sriharikota spaceport for months.

GISAT-1A, also designated EOS-05, is a Geo Imaging Satellite built to watch the Indian subcontinent from a distant orbit, keeping almost the entire landmass in view for large parts of the day. Designed for a ten-year mission life, it will image large areas at frequent intervals to help monitor natural disasters, agriculture and forestry. It replaces GISAT-1, lost in 2021 when the rocket's final propulsive stage failed to ignite.

The stakes are high: three of the six missions ISRO undertook in 2025 and 2026 saw satellites fail to reach their intended orbits. The PSLV-C61 mission carrying EOS-9 in 2025 and the PSLV-C62 mission carrying EOS-N1 this January both failed because of anomalies in the rocket's third stage, which the agency says are unrelated; the navigation satellite NVS-02 separately missed its slot after orbit-raising manoeuvres failed. Union Minister Jitendra Singh said in June that the causes had been identified and resolved, though the expert committee's findings will not be published.

NVS-03, already fuelled at Sriharikota, is likely to launch in November. The satellite matters because India's NavIC navigation constellation is down to three operational satellites — IRNSS-1B, IRNSS-1I and NVS-01 — while a minimum of four is required for standalone positioning; only the timing service remains functional, the minister told Parliament. The period also recorded successes, including the NISAR satellite built with NASA, launched on GSLV-F16, and two LVM3 launches carrying communication satellites.