ISRO chief V Narayanan on Monday said that the PSLV-C62 mission, carrying an Earth Observation satellite and several commercial payloads, encountered an anomaly during the third stage and added that the space agency has launched a detailed analysis to investigate the issue.
The 44.4 metre tall four-stage rocket lifted off as scheduled at 10.18 am from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
“Performance of the vehicle up to the end of 3rd stage was as expected, then we saw more disturbance in vehicle’s roll rates, subsequently there was a deviation observed in flight path. We are analysing the data and we shall comeback at the earliest,” he said.
The mission was intended to place a primary Earth Observation satellite and multiple co-passenger satellites into a 512 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit.
According to ISRO, the first two stages performed within expected parameters, and at the end of the third stage (PS3), the vehicle experienced “disturbances”.
Later, in a post on ‘X’, ISRO said, “the PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of PS3 (third stage). A detailed analysis has been initiated.”
The mission was the first launch of the year, part of a contract secured by NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO.
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The PS3, or third stage, of PSLV is a high-performance solid rocket motor (S7) that ignites after the first two stages, providing a major boost in the upper atmosphere/near-vacuum to raise the vehicle’s altitude and velocity.
