The investigation into the causes behind the consecutive failures of the Indian Space Rearch Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is ongoing, and an external team is also involved in the probe. Image used for representation purpose only.
| Photo Credit: PTI
The investigation into the causes behind the consecutive failures of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is ongoing, and an external team is also involved in the probe. But none of the companies that had satellites onboard the doomed rockets have expressed reservations over their reliability. ISRO is considering a fresh launch date in June, the Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, and Space, Jitendra Singh, said at a press briefing on Monday (February 2, 2026).
On January 12, the PSLV C-62 failed its mission to deliver 16 satellites into orbit, and crashed into the sea after the third stage of the rocket failed to ignite. This was similar to the May 18, 2025 failure of the PSLV (C-61), in which, too, the third stage failed to fire, destroying as a result the EOS-09 satellite intended for the government’s strategic needs.
ISRO’s historical response to rocket failures has been to have a Failure Analysis Committee probe the reasons for failure, and publicise its findings. This, however, has not taken place in the case of both of these rockets.
The PSLV is ISRO’s most successful satellite launch vehicle, and since 1993, has had an over 90% success rate, placing nearly 350 satellites into their intended orbits.
Dr. Singh appeared to suggest that the underlying causes of the two mishaps were different. “What happened last time has not happened now. (As an analogy), say, the light has gone off. The last time it happened because a bulb had fused. This time, it tripped,” Dr. Singh said..
“It isn’t that we (ISRO) are so unwise that we could not detect the reason for failures…this time, we are having a third party [appraisal] to create confidence, though we have expertise within ISRO for such analysis. Our probable next [launch] date, which we are ambitiously targeting, is June, after we satisfy ourselves that the problem is rectified. This year, we have 18 launches scheduled, with six of them involving private sector satellites. None have withdrawn their request to launch…this means, trust is intact. Next year, we have three big foreign launches — Japan, the United States, and France, and none have shown apprehension. That means our credibility is intact,” Mr. Singh said.
The Failure Analysis Committee report of the May 18 mishap was sent to the Prime Minister’s Office before the C-62 launch, but its details have not been made public.
The Failure Analysis Committee is a body of experts within ISRO to lead in the event of a major incident; it is constituted by the ISRO Chairman. It is expected to reconstruct the chain of events leading up to the failure, and recommend corrective action before the rocket is cleared to fly again. The Committee members include experts within ISRO as well as relevant experts from academia.
Published – February 02, 2026 09:04 pm IST
