Isro’s PSLV-C61/EOS-09 launch mission fails

SRIHARIKOTA: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro) launch of PSLV-C61, aimed at deploying the EOS-09 earth observation satellite into a sun-synchronous polar orbit from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), failed on Sunday.“The launch vehicle performed normal till the second stage and they made an observation in the third stage. The mission could not be accomplished. After analysis we will come back,” Isro chairman said.Previous PSLV mission that failed was PSLV-C39 mission to deploy the IRNSS-1H navigation satellite on August 31, 2017. The mission failed due to a malfunctioning heat shield.This is the third failure of PSLV. The first failure was PSLV-D1 launched on September 20, 1993.“Today 101st launch was attempted, PSLV-C61 performance was normal till 2nd stage. Due to an observation in 3rd stage, the mission could not be accomplished,” Isro posted on X.The 44.5-meter-tall PSLV-C61, weighing 321 tonnes at liftoff, soared into the skies at 5.59 am carrying the 1696.24 kg EOS-09 (Earth Observation Satellite-09). The mission was significant for multiple reasons — this was the 63rd overall flight of PSLV, and the 27th using its XL configuration known for carrying heavier payloads.EOS-09 is a radar imaging satellite configured using the RISAT-1 heritage bus and equipped with a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). This all-weather imaging capability enhances India’s earth observation assets by supporting a wide array of applications including agriculture, forestry, soil moisture estimation, and disaster management. EOS-09 is essentially a follow-up to the earlier EOS-04, aimed at improving image acquisition frequency and data continuity for operational users.