ISRO’s PSLV-C62 Rocket Deviates From The Path, Mission Fails: There Was A Disturbance In The Third Stage; Had Taken 16 Satellites Including Anvesha

Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s first mission of the year 2026 ‘PSLV-C62’ has failed. The rocket took off from the space center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 10.18 am on January 12 carrying 16 satellites. ISRO Chief Dr. V Narayanan said that there was a glitch in the third stage of the rocket launching, due to which it lost its way.

Last year also on May 18, ISRO’s PSLV-C61 mission failed in the third stage due to a technical fault. In this mission, the EOS-09 Earth Observation Satellite was to be placed in a 524 km sun-synchronous polar orbit.

Satellites were to be installed in orbit at a height of 512km.

EOS-N1 (Anwesha) and 14 satellites were to be placed in Sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 512 km.

The fourth part of the rocket (PS4 stage) had to be restarted so that it could be turned back towards Earth.

Then ‘KID’ i.e. Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator KID Capsule of a Spanish startup would have been separated from it.

An Error Occurred In The 8th Minute Of The Mission

The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission was scheduled to last for a total of 1 hour 48 minutes 5 seconds, but a glitch occurred in the 8th minute. Because of this:

PS4 stage ignition (505.12 s) may or may not occur, or was not completely successful.
The satellites (16 payloads including EOS-N1) could not be injected into orbit.
Subsequent events such as re-entry burn and KID separation (6485 s) could not occur.
ISRO has declared it neither successful nor unsuccessful. Generally, if there is any disturbance in the third phase, the mission is almost considered a failure.

Now What Will Happen Next, Understand In 3 Questions

1. What happens to the rocket after it loses its way?

Onboard computers and safety systems installed in the rocket continuously monitor its direction, speed and altitude.
If the rocket is going in the wrong direction and poses a threat to the ground or population, the Range Safety Officer can destroy it (Flight Termination).
If the malfunction occurs at high altitude, rocket parts fall into the sea.
In such cases it is not possible to control the rocket back.

2. What will happen to 16 satellites?

The situation depends on at which stage the error occurred-

(a) Disturbance before satellite separation

Satellites are destroyed along with the rocket or fall into the sea.

It is practically not possible to save or recover them.

(b) Satellites have been separated but in the wrong orbit

If the satellites can control themselves through onboard systems, then attempts are made to correct the orbit.

But if the orbit is too wrong, the satellites are declared unusable for the mission. After some time they may burn up in the atmosphere.

3. Is this considered a major failure?

Technically this is considered a partial or complete mission failure.
But for a space agency like ISRO, it is part of the learning process.
There have been glitches in PSLV in the past too, after which the system was further strengthened.

PSLV Is Included In The World’s Most Reliable Rocket

PSLV is considered the most reliable rocket of ISRO. It has completed 63 flights so far, including major missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mangalyaan (MOM), Aditya-L1 and Astrosat. In 2017, PSLV created a world record by launching 104 satellites in a single mission.

Anvesha Could Find Enemies Hidden In Jungle Bunkers

Anwesha was developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). It is a spy satellite equipped with advanced imaging capabilities. Despite being several hundred kilometers above the ground, it could capture photographs of enemies hidden in bushes, forests or bunkers.

Till Now 6 Countries Have Launched Hysis Satellite

Apart from India, America, China, Germany, Japan, Italy and Pakistan have also launched hyperspectral. India had earlier launched its first hyperspectral imaging satellite on 29 November 2018.

The weight of this satellite named HySIS was 380 kg. However, it could detect light in 55 spectral bands. Anwesha is an upgraded version of HySIS and has higher hyperspectral capability.

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2181700cookie-checkISRO’s PSLV-C62 Rocket Deviates From The Path, Mission Fails: There Was A Disturbance In The Third Stage; Had Taken 16 Satellites Including Anvesha