It was a black Sunday for the Indian space programme as it suffered a whopping Rs.850 crore ($100 million) serious setback with its rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) variant failing midway to orbit the country’s spy satellite.
It was 101th launch mission from India’s rocket port in Sriharikota.
A radar imaging satellite with synthetic aperture radar (SAR), the EOS-09 was primarily for surveillance purposes that was intended to boost India’s surveillance network with a mission life of five years.
Details of the PSLV-XL flight
The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) PSLV-XL rocket code named (PSLV-C61) standing 44.5 metres tall and weighing 321 ton, lifted off with 1,696.24 kg earth observation satellite 09 (EOS-09) or RISAT-1B at 5.59 a.m. Indian Standard Time.
Around six minutes into its flight, and soon after the solid fuel third stage was ignited, trouble started and the vehicle veered off the path as was seen on the screen at the Mission Control Centre.
ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan said the first two stages of the rocket performed as expected and during the third stage performance, there was an `observation’ and the EOS-09 mission could not be accomplished.
He told the journalists that there was a fall in the third-stage chamber pressure in the motor case.
Later ISRO tweeted: “Today 101st launch was attempted, PSLV-C61 performance was normal till 2nd stage. Due to an observation in the 3rd stage, the mission could not be accomplished.”
What is the `observation’ ISRO Chairman and the space agency did not explain.
2nd Consecutive Failure Of A Mission With Strategic Interests
A former senior official of ISRO said the failure of the third stage could be due to a faulty valve-main and the redundant- or some other component that resulted in the fall in the chamber pressure.
This is the second consecutive failure of a mission that was to serve India’s strategic interests.
In January this year, the 2,250 kg navigation satellite NVS-02 that was placed in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) on 29 January 2025, got stuck there as its pyro valve did not open to pump in the oxidiser to fire the motors while the fuel pumps were working.
It is said, one of the probable reasons for the pyro valve of NVS-02 not opening could be a fault with the electrical connector. However, it is still unknown as to the actual reason for the pyro valve’s failure.
It is not known whether the Failure Analysis Committee set up by ISRO to study the cause for NVS-02’s failure has submitted its report.
Disturbing Failures of PSLV
The PSLV is a four staged rocket powered by solid and liquid propellants alternatively.
The first and third stages are fired by solid propellant and the second and fourth stages are fired by liquid propellant.
The rocket that failed on Sunday is called PSLV-XL variant flown for the 27th time in its history.
But for three failures – first in 1993, second on 31st August .2017 and the third one on Sunday – the PSLV has an excellent success record launching several Indian and foreign satellites.
ISRO also had earlier dismantled a fully assembled PSLV rocket to check a component in the rocket’s second stage.
The latest or the Sunday failure of PSLV may slightly dent ISRO’s prospects in the global small and medium sized global satellite launch market.
But the more serious issue on the hand is the successive failures of India’s satellite missions that were expected to serve the country’s strategic interests.
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