Highlights:
- Due to a “technical anomaly,” India’s GSLV failed to launch the EOS-3 into orbit on Thursday, causing a major setback.
- The rocket’s performance in its first and second stages, according to scientists, was normal.
- The Range Operations Director later stated that the “mission could not be properly completed due to a performance anomaly.”
The mission to launch the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Earth Observation Satellite EOS-03 into orbit “could not be completed fully” due to an anomaly, the space agency stated following the launch this morning.
In a statement, ISRO stated, “The performance of the first and second stages was normal. However, due to a technical glitch, Cryogenic Upper Stage ignition didn’t take place. The mission couldn’t be accomplished as intended.”
At 5.43 a.m. today, a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) launched the satellite from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota following a 26-hour countdown. Natural calamities such as cyclones, cloudbursts, and thunderstorms would be monitored by the satellite.
GSLV-F10 launch took place today at 0543 Hrs IST as scheduled. Performance of first and second stages was normal. However, Cryogenic Upper Stage ignition did not happen due to technical anomaly. The mission couldn't be accomplished as intended.
— ISRO (@isro) August 12, 2021
The Range Operations Director, however, revealed shortly afterwards in the Mission Control Centre that the “mission could not be completed fully due to a performance anomaly.”
The EOS-03, a cutting-edge Earth observation satellite, was designed to aid in the rapid monitoring of natural disasters such as cyclones, cloudbursts, and thunderstorms.
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“A 4-metre diameter Ogive-shaped payload fairing is being flown for the first time in this GSLV flight. This is the fourteenth flight of GSLV,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had said on the launch.
The launch was originally scheduled for April or May, however it was postponed due to Covid’s second wave.
After the Chandrayaan-2 moon mission spacecraft in 2019, this was the GSLV Mk III’s second flight.
G Madhavan Nair, the former chairman of ISRO, expressed disappointment about the mission’s failure, believing that the satellite “would have fallen into the sea and been lost forever.”
He claimed this was the second time a malfunction in the cryogenic stage, which is “extremely difficult” compared to the other steps, had occurred in eight launches.
” There are countless possibilities for things that can go wrong. ISRO takes care of all those aspects and prepares the stage for the flight. So, something went wrong with the cryogenic stage, that’s the information we have right now, but we need to review the elements of data from the ground station, as well as detailed parameters, to figure out exactly what went wrong. Perhaps in the next few days, we’ll have a clearer picture ” said Dr. Nair.
The former ISRO chief also mentioned the likelihood that the prolonged wait will have an impact on the launch.
“Suddenly, we have to be concerned about the cause (of the failure), which could be the extended wait due to Covid…it has been about a year since it was launched. Perhaps we’ll have to go deeper into the details before we can be certain,” he stated.
“All safeguards have been taken,” Dr Nair said, “but there are a great number of metallic parts, moving parts, and all those things, and if any of them deteriorates in its characteristics, the likelihood of failure will be higher than in a fresh stage.”
