PTC News Desk: India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C61) mission encountered an unusual failure early Sunday when an issue with the third-stage propulsion system caused the EOS-09 Earth observation satellite launch to fail.
The rocket launched at 5:59 a.m. IST from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota but deviated from its intended path during the third-stage solid rocket motor phase, prompting ISRO to abort the mission.
The 1,696 kg EOS-09 satellite—intended to deliver all-weather imaging using C-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR)—was unable to reach its planned 524 km sun-synchronous polar orbit. Initial telemetry suggests the third-stage motor, powered by hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) propellant, delivered suboptimal performance approximately 203 seconds after liftoff. This represents the third complete failure in the PSLV’s 63-launch history and its first since 2017.
ISRO Chief V Narayanan acknowledged the anomaly during the live broadcast shortly after launch.
Engineers are currently reviewing flight data to assess whether the issue was caused by irregular propellant flow, nozzle malfunctions, or structural faults. A failure analysis committee has been set up to examine the third stage’s manufacturing documentation and testing procedures.
The failure is expected to delay India’s efforts to improve SAR-based border monitoring and disaster management capabilities.
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