Isro's 101st mission fails as PSLV develops fault

MUMBAI: The Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) Dist mission, aimed at enhanc ing the country's land observa-hon abilities, failed as the Polar Synchronous Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket developed faults minutes after launch on Sunday morning, the space agency said

The PSLV-Coil rocket, carrying the Earth Observation Satel lite-09 (EOS-09) lifted off at 5.59am from the First Launch Pod at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SUSC). Sriharikota range (SHAR) However, an anomaly discovered in the third stage of the launch resulting in the fail ure of the mission

"Today, 101st launch was attempted. PSLV-C61 perform ance was normal till 2nd stage Due to an observation in Ird stage, the mission could not be accomplished," the Indian space agency posted in X. Isra will undertake a detailed investiga non of what went wrong

This marks the PSLV rocket's third failure the first during the inaugural flight with PSLV-DI in 1993 and PSLV-C39 in 2017. PSLV-C6) marks the 63rd light of PSLV and the 27th using PSLV-XL configuration.

According to faro chief V Narayanan, the performance of the PSLV rocket a four-stage launch vehicle was normal till the second stage. He said during the third stage, which is a solid motor system, there was a fall in chamber pressure of the motor "We are studying the entire per formance, we shall come back at the earliest," he said. Later on Sunday evening, Narayanan said that the agency has formed a committee to investi gate the incident and the com mittee has held several rounds of discussions to identify the cause.

 "To identify the root cause of the problem, a commitice has been formed, and we had a series of discussions today. Once we identify the root cause of the incident, we will inform you of the reason behind it," he said. He said it was regrettable" that the mission could not be accomplished.

According to Isro data, the first stage separation was sched-uled for 111.64 seconds after lift off but was achieved at IIO sec onds. Similarly, the second stage separation was aimed at 264.34 seconds but it took place at 261.8 seconds. The 1,696kg EDS-09 sat ellite carried the Synthetic Aper-ture Radar (SAR) payload, which was to be placed in Sun Synchro nous Polar Orbit (SSPO), en ing the satellite passes over the same location on Earth at the same local time.