Isro's 101st mission fails as PSLV develops fault

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (Isro) 101st mission, aimed at enhancing the country's land observation abilities, failed as the Polar Synchronous Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket developed faults minutes after launch on Sunday morning, the space agency said.

- HT Correspondent

MUMBAI:

The PSLV-C61 rocket, carrying the Earth Observation Satellite-09 (EOS-09), lifted off at 5.59am from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota range (SHAR). However, an anomaly discovered in the third stage of the launch resulting in the failure of the mission.

"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," the Indian space agency posted in X. Isro will undertake a detailed investigation of what went wrong.

This marks the PSLV rocket's third failure — the first during the inaugural flight with PSLV-D1 in 1993 and PSLV-C39 in 2017. PSLV-C61 marks the 63rd flight of PSLV and the 27th using PSLV-XL configuration.