Countdown begins for PSLV-C62 launch as India’s first space mission of 2026

ISRO on Sunday commenced a 22.5-hour countdown for the launch of its PSLV-C62 rocket , marking the space agency’s first mission of 2026. The lift-off is scheduled at 10:18 AM today after being rescheduled from 10:17 AM.

The rocket will carry an Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-N1) , developed jointly by Thailand and the United Kingdom , along with 13 co-passenger satellites for domestic and international clients. The commercial arm of ISRO, NewSpace India Ltd (NSIL) , is handling the co-passenger satellites, which include experimental and technology demonstration payloads.

A key highlight of the mission is the deployment of the Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID) capsule, a 25-kg experimental payload from a Spanish startup. After deploying the primary satellites into a sun-synchronous orbit, about 17 minutes after lift-off, ISRO scientists will re-start the rocket’s fourth stage (PS4) to de-boost the stage and demonstrate the controlled re-entry of the KID capsule. Both the PS4 stage and the KID capsule are expected to splash down safely in the South Pacific Ocean.

A sun-synchronous orbit is a type of near-polar orbit in which a satellite passes over the same part of the Earth at roughly the same local solar time. This allows consistent lighting conditions for imaging and Earth observation satellites.

The fourth stage, called PS4, is the last stage of the rocket responsible for giving the satellites their final velocity and precise orbit. In this mission, it will be re-started to reduce its speed (de-boost) and guide the KID capsule back safely to Earth, demonstrating controlled re-entry.

The PSLV-C62 mission differs from the previous PSLV-C61 Earth Observation Satellite 09 mission launched in May 2025, which faced issues in the third stage and could not complete its objective. Unlike C61, the C62 mission features multiple co-passenger satellites and a re-entry technology demonstration , making it a more complex and ambitious mission.

The PSLV series , with a lift-off mass of 260 tonnes, has so far completed 63 successful flights , including landmark missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 . The C62 launch underlines ISRO’s continued leadership in space technology, commercial satellite deployment, and international collaboration.