Marking the year’s first launch, ISRO's trusted workhorse PSLV lifted off from the spaceport on Monday, carrying an earth observation satellite along with 14 other commercial payloads for both domestic and overseas customers, encountered an anomaly during the end of the PS3 burn stage, informed ISRO.
"A detailed analysis has been initiated," the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) posted on X.
ISRO chairman V Naryanan stated that "a deviation in the vehicle's flight path" was observed, and added, "Today, we have attempted the PSLV C62 / EOS - N1 Mission. The PSLV vehicle is a four-stage vehicle with two solid stages and two liquid stages. The vehicle's performance near the end of the third stage was as expected. (However), Near the end of the third stage, we are seeing increased disturbance in the vehicle. Subsequently, a deviation in the vehicle's flight path is observed. We are analysing the data and will come back at the earliest.”
This is ISRO's first major launch of 2026. The mission aimed to place an Earth observation satellite into orbit from the First Launch Pad (FLP) at Sriharikota.
In another first, a single Indian private company, Dhruva Space, based in Hyderabad, contributed seven satellites to the mission. Chaitanya Dora Surapureddy, CFO and Co-founder of Dhruva Space, said, "We launched four satellites that we have built, three for customers and one for us, and we also help other companies with part of the integration of the satellite onto the rocket. Essentially, a total of nine of our systems, which we have built, are going onto the rocket. So, quite exciting that that's a good number.”
"The satellites that we launched are all for low data rate communication. Amateur radio operators can utilise it towards that, and also a good demonstration for these satellites, and also for low data rate communication that can be done," he added.
The 44.4 metre tall four-stage PSLV-C62 rocket soared from the first launch pad at a prefixed time of 10.18 am.
The mission is part of the contract secured by NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO.
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