TRISHNA targets launch within 12–16 months for thermal mapping

India’s TRISHNA Earth-observation satellite targets launch within 12–16 months, Jasvinder Singh Khoral, Director (Projects) at the U.R. Rao Satellite Centre, told a workshop on October 11, 2026, according to The Hindu. The timetable is a stated target for the mission jointly developed by India’s space agency, ISRO, and France’s CNES; it is not a confirmed launch date.

The Hindu reported that Khoral described the project as having reached the realisation stage. He outlined the Indian centre’s responsibility for the spacecraft bus and Indian payloads, with CNES supplying the French payload contribution. He also described plans for data processing in both countries. The report identifies the event as the TRISHNA Water for Tomorrow workshop.

CNES describes TRISHNA as a mission to measure land and coastal surface temperatures. Its thermal-infrared instrument is to work alongside an optical instrument from ISRO. The agency’s mission page specifies 60-metre sampling for the resulting products and a three-day interval between observations of the same point at the equator. These are planned measurement characteristics, rather than performance demonstrated in orbit.

The measurements are intended to help study vegetation water stress and water use. ISRO’s mission description connects temperature observations with monitoring evapotranspiration and managing agricultural water resources. The Hindu also reported project director Nagalakshmi A.M.’s plan for an open policy for distributing the mission’s science data worldwide.

CNES’s mission page, marked as modified on June 30, 2026, lists a planned launch in 2027 and the project’s status as under development. The October 11 statement provides a more recent relative window. Neither that report nor the cited CNES page supplies a fixed launch day; the next step remains a planned launch, rather than a reported completed flight.