What’s in the news?

• The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has launched the EOS-08 Earth Observation Satellite onboard the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV)-D3 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota.
• This is SSLV-D3’s third and final development flight.
• The EOS-08 satellite was injected into 475 km circular orbit as intended.
• The SSLV is capable of launching Mini, Micro or Nanosatellites (10 to 500kg mass) into a 500 km planar orbit. 
• SSLV is a three-stage launch vehicle with all solid propulsion stages and a liquid propulsion-based Velocity Trimming Module (VTM) as a terminal stage.
• The design drivers of SSLV are low cost, low turn-around time, flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, launch-on-demand feasibility, minimal launch infrastructure requirements, etc.