The story thus far:
On January 12, the Indian Area Analysis Organisation’s (ISRO) PSLV-C62 mission lifted off from Sriharikota carrying the EOS-N1 satellite tv for pc together with 15 co-passenger satellites. Inside minutes, ISRO stated the mission had “encountered an anomaly throughout finish of the PS3 stage”, and {that a} detailed evaluation was initiated.
What was the anomaly?
In a televised briefing after the launch, ISRO chairman V. Narayanan described what mission management was seeing: that efficiency was “as anticipated” as much as close to the top of the rocket’s third stage, known as PS3, then that there was elevated “disturbance within the car roll charges”, adopted by a deviation within the flight path. In different phrases, in the direction of the top of the third stage, the rocket was spinning uncontrollably, sufficient for it to not be capable of proceed on its deliberate path. As of January 16, ISRO hasn’t printed an announcement concerning the root reason behind the mishap.
Following the incident, Thailand’s house company GISTDA, whose THEOS-2A satellite tv for pc was on board PSLV-C62, stated a malfunction late within the third stage triggered an attitude-control abnormality and the car deviated from its trajectory, stopping the rocket from deploying the satellites it was carrying. GISTDA additionally stated the rocket and satellites have been anticipated to fall again and expend over the southern Indian Ocean. The anomaly resembled the occasions previous the failure of the PSLV-C61 mission on Might 18, 2025.
What occurred to PSLV-C61?
ISRO’s PSLV-C61 mission was carrying the EOS-09 satellite tv for pc. The rocket failed after the primary two levels, with the third stage not performing nominally. ISRO famous a drop in chamber strain within the third-stage motor case through the PS3 operation, after which it stated the mission “couldn’t be completed”.
Based mostly on what has been reported publicly thus far, each the C62 and the C61 missions suffered decisive anomalies on PS3 after a nominal early ascent and neither may deploy their payloads into the designated orbit (with a qualification for the KID payload). In C62, the primary symptom was a “roll fee disturbance” late within the PS3 stage operation; in C61, the symptom was a chamber-pressure drop within the PS3 motor casing.
ISRO’s preliminary communications in each circumstances additionally confused that an anomaly had occurred and that evaluation was underway, nevertheless it didn’t publish an in depth record of corrective actions it must take. After the C61 mission failed, Dr. Narayanan constituted a Failure Evaluation Committee (FAC) to look into the causes of the mishap. The FAC submitted its report back to the Prime Minister’s Workplace in mid-2025.
What does the FAC do?
The FAC is just not a standing physique of specialists inside ISRO however as an alternative an entity the ISRO chairman constitutes within the occasion of a significant incident. Its accountability is to reconstruct the chain of occasions main as much as the failure utilizing telemetry and subsystem knowledge and in dialog with folks concerned in that mission. It’s anticipated to determine the causes, and advocate corrective motion earlier than the car is cleared for a ‘return to flight’.
The Committee members embrace specialists inside ISRO in addition to related specialists from academia. It has additionally been recognized to incorporate former ISRO chairmen. The FAC submits its closing report back to the Indian authorities. The ISRO chairman is Secretary to the Division of Area, which capabilities straight beneath the PMO.
The aftermath of the GSLV-F10 mission offers an instructive window into the FAC’s efforts. After that mission failed in 2021, right here’s an excerpt of what the FAC discovered: “The FAC concluded that the decrease liquid hydrogen tank strain on the time of cryogenic higher stage engine ignition, attributable to the leakage of vent and reduction valve resulted within the malfunctioning of the gasoline booster turbo pump, resulting in mission abort command and subsequent failure of the mission.”
The place is the PSLV-C61 FAC report?
Though the PSLV-C61 FAC submitted its report back to the PMO, the PMO hasn’t cleared it for public launch but. Unbiased specialists criticised the choice to withhold it after PSLV-C62 additionally suffered an anomaly in its third stage. ISRO has additionally not stated whether or not it has constituted an FAC for the C62 mission, though a brief assertion on its web site says “an in depth evaluation has been initiated”. On November 15, 2025, throughout an unrelated lecture, Vikram Sarabhai Area Centre director A. Rajarajan had attributed the lack of the PSLV-C61 mission to a “slight manufacturing error”.
That stated this isn’t the primary time particulars of the FAC’s findings of a mishap have been withheld. Earlier cases embrace the PSLV-C39 mission in 2017. ISRO has additionally been terse concerning the points main as much as the underperformance of the NVS-02 satellite tv for pc.
Earlier, even when the FAC report hadn’t been launched into the general public area, ISRO had issued statements with detailed summaries of the FAC’s findings, for instance, after the GSLV-F10 mission in 2021 and the GSLV-F02 mission in 2006. The aftermath of PSLV-C61 is a break from the previous on this sense as properly, since no such statements have been issued.
What occurred to satellites on PSLV-C62?
The mission’s main payload was EOS-N1, a surveillance satellite tv for pc from the Defence Analysis and Growth Organisation. The co-passengers comprised payloads involving Thailand, the U.Ok., Nepal, France, Spain, and Brazil, plus seven satellites from Indian enterprises.
The PSLV has failed 4 occasions thus far, however PSLV-C62 was the primary time it failed whereas carrying buyer satellites offered by Indian and international entities. The mission had been facilitated by ISRO’s industrial arm, NewSpace India, Ltd. Whereas the ISRO didn’t say whether or not the mission had failed after the anomaly on January 12, the assertion from Thailand’s GISTDA advised that the rocket’s remaining levels and the payloads would fall again down in the direction of the earth and expend.
The KID payload was a reentry demonstrator — a tool designed to fall again down from orbit and splash into the southern Pacific Ocean. In an announcement launched after January 12, Orbital Paradigm, its Spain-based co-developer, stated KID had transmitted “off-nominal” knowledge for about three minutes.
GISTDA stated its THEOS-2A satellite tv for pc had been insured. The Indian personal sector payloads onboard PSLV-C62 reportedly hadn’t been insured, so the price of the loss would have been absorbed by the builders of every satellite tv for pc. The price of dropping EOS-N1 shall be borne by India.
Printed – January 18, 2026 03:16 am IST
