ISRO says its earth observation satellite mission could not be accomplished

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday said that its PSLV-C61 earth observation satellite mission could not be accomplished.

The mission marked the 63rd flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and the 27th using the PSLV-XL configuration. The PSLV-C61 was set to place the EOS-09 earth observation satellite into a Sun Synchronous Polar Orbit, meaning that the satellite would pass over a given area on earth at the same time every day.

The satellite carried a Synthetic Aperture Radar payload, which could provide images of the earth in all weather conditions.

However, minutes after the PSLV-C61 with the satellite lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at 5.59 am, the space agency said that the mission could not be accomplished due to an “observation”.

“Today 101st launch was attempted, PSLV-C61 performance was normal till 2nd stage,” the space agency said in a statement. “Due to an observation in 3rd stage, the mission could not be accomplished.”

“Today from Sriharikota the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 mission was targeted,” ISRO chairperson V Narayanan said. “The PSLV is a four stage vehicle and the second stage performance was quite normal. The third stage motor started perfectly but during the functioning of the third stage, we are seeing an observation and the mission could not be accomplished.”

He said more details would be...

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