On Friday, August 16, ISRO successfully launched its third and last experimental flight, the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle-D3 (SSLV D3), which held the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-08. The majestic liftoff of the rocket occurred at the first launch pad in the Satish Dhawan Space Centre located in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.

The goals of the SSLV-D3-EOS-08 mission involve the creation of a microsatellite and payload instruments that can work with the microsatellite bus, as stated by the national space agency based in Bengaluru. Constructed on the Micro-sat/IMS-1 platform, EOS-08 includes three instruments: Electro Optical Infrared Payload (EOIR), Global Navigation Satellite System-Reflectometry payload (GNSS-R) and SiC UV Dosimeter.

The EOIR payload is created to take pictures in the Mid-Wave IR (MIR) and Long-Wave IR (LWIR) bands, day and night, for uses like satellite-based surveillance, disaster monitoring, environmental monitoring, fire detection, volcanic activity observation, and industrial and power plant disaster monitoring.

The GNSS-R payload shows the potential of GNSS-R-based remote sensing for tasks like analyzing ocean surface wind, assessing soil moisture, studying the cryosphere in the Himalayan region, detecting floods, and detecting inland water bodies.

The SiC UV Dosimeter tracks UV exposure at the Crew Module viewport during the Gaganyaan Mission and acts as a high-dose alarm for gamma radiation.