ISRO suffers its second consecutive failure; the failure of Mission 'Anvesha' puts the future of 16 satellites at risk.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) today launched the highly confidential hyperspectral surveillance satellite 'Anvesha', developed by DRDO, as part of the PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission. However, the mission failed due to a malfunction in the PS3 stage. This is the second consecutive failure for the PSLV rocket projects.

The PSLV-C62 mission, which lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 10:18 AM on Monday, experienced an "anomalous deviation" in its third stage, jeopardizing the fate of all 16 satellites on board, including EOS-N1 and Anvesha. ISRO chief Dr. V. Narayanan confirmed that the rocket deviated from its intended trajectory.

Avoiding declaring failure

ISRO Chairman Dr. V. Narayanan stated that the data is being analyzed and the space agency will share details as soon as possible, although he refrained from declaring the mission a success or failure.

According to ISRO, the initial minutes of the launch proceeded as planned. The first and second stages of the four-stage rocket, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, functioned normally. However, problems arose during the third stage, where a deviation in the rocket's trajectory was observed. It subsequently failed to proceed on its expected path. Five failures in 64 launches is not considered a bad record.

As per standard procedure, ISRO had constituted a failure analysis committee after the 2025 mission. However, the findings of that committee were never made public, leaving the exact cause of the failure unknown. Despite this, ISRO decided to launch PSLV-C62 as its first launch of 2026.

The PSLV-C62 carried a total of 16 satellites, including EOS-N1 and a surveillance satellite named Anvesha, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). These satellites are now lost in space.