PSLV-C62 strays from flight path, fails to launch satellite
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) suffered a major setback on Monday, with its PSLV-C62 mission, the first of the year, failing to reach its intended orbit because of problems in the rocket.
The PSLV-C62 rocket was carrying EOS-N1, an earth observation satellite, and 15 other payloads, including seven from Brazil and Nepal. All the payloads were lost.
“The PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of PS3 (third stage) of the vehicle. A detailed analysis has been initiated,” ISRO said in a post on X. The space agency did not provide more details.
This was the second successive failure for a PSLV rocket, raising questions over the reliability of ISRO’s most successful launch vehicle. Its last flight in May 2025, which was carrying another earth observation satellite, EOS-09, had also met a similar fate. In fact, in both these missions, the problem arose in the third stage of the flight, when the rocket was attempting to get into an orbit around the Earth.
The reason for Monday’s failure was not immediately known. But the previous failure, in PSLV-C61 in May last year, was attributed to an unexpected drop in pressure in the combustion chamber of the third-stage engine.
PSLV is ISRO’s mainstay rocket, having powered 65 of the 105 launches that India’s space agency has carried out till date.
Only four of these, including the first one way back in 1993, have failed. But two successive failures within a span of six months does blemish an otherwise fine record.
It could be embarrassing for ISRO if the reasons for Monday’s failure turned out to be similar to what happened with the previous mission.