Indian missile failed for the second time in a row

According to the mission control center of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), PSLV operated normally for most of the flight time before experiencing problems and deviating from orbit.

“Near the end of the third stage engine combustion phase, we noticed that the rocket’s rotation speed was a little more chaotic than usual, then the flight path deviated,” said ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan. “We are analyzing the data and will respond as soon as possible.”

The launch marked the 64th flight of the PSLV and the 5th flight of the PSLV-DL version. This is the fourth failure of PSLV, a rocket line that has a very high success rate but encountered two consecutive incidents in just 8 months. The most recent launch, which took place in May last year, also did not go smoothly. During this launch, the PSLV-XL rocket version could not bring the EOS-09 Earth observation radar satellite into orbit due to a problem on the third stage.

The main package of the PSLV rocket today is EOS-N1, a small Earth observation satellite serving the Indian military. Many sources said that this is a hyperspectral imaging satellite, designed to study the blue planet at hundreds of different wavelengths of light.

In addition to this satellite, the rocket also carries 15 other devices including a joint Earth observation satellite between Thailand and the UK, a Brazilian fishing vessel support satellite, an orbital refueling experiment set from an Indian company and KID – a reentry capsule from Spanish startup Orbital Paradigm. All cargo on PSLV is headed for low Earth orbit, except for KID, which is scheduled to separate from the rocket’s fourth stage at the end of its flight and return to Earth, landing in the South Pacific.

PSLV is a 44.4 m high 4-stage rocket, launched in 1993. During more than three decades of operation, this rocket line has successfully launched many important goods such as the Moon probe Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008, the Mars orbiter Mangalyaan in November 2013 and Aditya-L1, India’s first spacecraft specializing in solar research, in September 2023.