In space research, satellite launch failures are not uncommon. Yet the failure of ISRO’s PSLV-C62 will hurt India, its space ambitions, and its military capabilities for years to come.
The PSLV-C62 mission, carrying the EOS-N1 Earth observation satellite and 15 co-passenger satellites, lifted off at 10:18 am (January 12) from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, marking India’s first space launch of the 2026 calendar year.
The lift-off was successful; however, within 30 minutes of the launch, ISRO informed that the rocket “encountered an anomaly during the end of the PS3 stage.”
“A detailed analysis has been initiated,” ISRO said in its statement.
The status of all 16 satellites, including sensitive military satellites, satellites from many Indian start-ups, and some foreign satellites from Nepal, Brazil, France, and Thailand, remains unclear.
Liftoff!
PSLV-C62 launches the EOS-N1 Mission from SDSC-SHAR, Sriharikota.
Livestream link: https://t.co/fMiIFTUGpf
For more information Visit:https://t.co/3ijojDaYB2
#PSLVC62 #EOSN1 #ISRO #NSIL— ISRO (@isro) January 12, 2026
However, in all likelihood, all these satellites have been lost, affecting not only ISRO’s reputation but also India’s nascent space start-up ecosystem and the country’s military modernization efforts.
The PSLV-C62 carried satellites from several small Indian space start-ups, including Dhruva Space, TakeMe2Space, OrbitAID Aerospace, Space Kidz India, and Akshath Aerospace. Many of these space start-ups are on tight budgets, and the loss of a satellite, even when insured, could be costly.
The failure will also hurt India’s efforts to commercialize ISRO’s satellite launch service.
ISRO is aggressively pushing the PSLV as a commercial product through NewSpace India, Ltd (NSIL).
NSIL is the commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). It was incorporated in 2019 to scale up private-sector participation in India’s space activities, shift toward a demand-driven model for space missions (rather than a purely supply-driven model by ISRO), and handle end-to-end commercial space business.
Commercial satellite launch service is a key component of this drive towards commercialization.
The loss of 16 satellites will impact ISRO’s reputation as a safe and cost-effective launch provider.
Furthermore, the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) is ISRO’s workhorse. The organization has launched over 100 missions on this rocket.
A launch failure involving this rocket could ground and delay many of ISRO’s upcoming launches until there is clarity on the cause.
However, the failure of PSLV-C62 will hurt India even more, as it represents a deeper malaise within ISRO and its PSLV rockets.
Back-To-Back PSLV Failures For ISRO
Worryingly, this is ISRO’s second PSLV failure in a row.
Earlier in May 2025, ISRO’s PSLV-C61 mission also failed.
Curiously, the PSLV rocket has a reputation as a ‘workhorse’ because ISRO has had a string of successes with it. Now, following back-to-back failures, the future of ISRO’s PSLV rocket hangs in the balance, with serious questions about its reliability and the sanitization of its supply chains.
More worryingly, both missions failed for similar reasons: anomalies in the PSLV third-stage (PS3) performance.
“On 18th May 2025, the 101st launch was attempted, c’s performance was normal till the 2nd stage. Due to an observation in the 3rd stage, the mission could not be accomplished,” ISRO has said in its statement last year.
Following the failure on January 12, ISRO said, “The PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during end of the PS3 stage. A detailed analysis has been initiated.”
The back-to-back failures in the same stage of the PSLV rocket within a span of eight months suggest that ISRO either failed to understand the cause of the 2025 failure or failed to rectify it.
However, the fact that ISRO has still not publicly released the report of the Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) it constituted after the 2025 failure suggests that there could be more to these failures than meets the eye.
Why the 2025 FAC Report Is Still Not Public?
After every launch failure, ISRO establishes a fact-finding committee, called the Failure Analysis Committee (FAC), to investigate the cause and recommend corrective measures before the next launch.
The FAC is composed of subject matter experts, scientists, and former ISRO engineers.
The FAC reports are usually made public.
For instance, ISRO has made the Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) report for the GSLV-F10 (2021) mission public, with details available on its official website.
However, the FAC report on PSLV-C61’s failure has not yet been made public.
ISRO falls under the Department of Space, which is part of the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). The FAC submitted its report to the PMO. The decision not to make the report public is also the PMO’s; however, the reasons are not clear.
One point of concern is that both the PSLV-C61 and PSLV-C62 missions carried military satellites, and the government may have wanted to protect sensitive information on them.
However, it’s still possible to release a full technical failure report while redacting any sensitive information. Afterall, the failure was not linked to any of the payload on the rocket.
According to science journalist Vasudevan Mukunth, the PS3 is a solid fuel motor and a technologically mature component; it shouldn’t fail. So a failure here suggests a lapse in quality assurance or supply chain management rather than a design flaw per se.
“If the root cause was simple negligence, such as a manufacturing defect — which media reports of the FAC’s conclusions indicated — or a missed inspection, admitting this in public could be devastating for the PSLV’s commercial insurance premiums and reputation.”
Furthermore, if the issue involves the use of sub-standard material in PSLV rockets, it could force the grounding of the entire PSLV fleet for a longer duration.
ISRO and its PSLV fleet will certainly be under greater scrutiny now, as ISRO avoided making the FAC report on PSLV-C61’s failure public and, presumably, has now suffered a similar setback during PSLV-C62’s launch as well.
Setback To India’s Military Surveillance Capabilities
The PSLV-C61 failure resulted in the loss of the EOS-9 (also known as RISAT-1A) satellite, while the PSLV-C62 failure led to the loss of the EOS-N1 (Anvesha) satellite. Both satellites had military applications.
RISAT-1A was a radar imaging satellite capable of imaging the Earth’s surface day or night, and through all weather conditions.
The Anvesha satellite (EOS-N1) was a hyperspectral imaging Earth-observation platform developed by India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).
According to Vijainder K Thakur, a former IAF fighter pilot and a defense analyst, “From the point of view of the military, high-resolution panchromatic satellites are essential for accurate targeting and precise geolocation, while hyperspectral imaging (HySI) is primarily aimed at situational awareness.
“Panchromatic imagery can identify the precise coordinates of a parked fighter aircraft to enable a missile strike. HySI, however, can determine whether the observed object is an actual aircraft or a decoy—often with close to 90% accuracy—by analysing the unique spectral signatures of constituent materials.”
Thus, the back-to-back loss of these satellites further delays the enhancement of the Indian Armed Forces’ ISR capabilities.
Furthermore, it means that India will have to rely on foreign countries to access similar satellite-based services.
These failures are delaying the deployment of several important space-based capabilities developed by Indian scientists.
In fact, notwithstanding ISRO’s splendid record, it has a disturbing pattern of losing strategic space missions in the recent past.
For instance, it has experienced failures on three strategic space missions of military significance in the last year.
Earlier in January 2025, during the launch of GSLV-F15/NVS-02, a second-generation, heavier NAVIC satellite, the GSLV rocket successfully placed the NVS-02 satellite into an initial orbit, but an anomaly prevented it from firing its onboard engines and moving to the final orbit.
ISRO’s own statistics show that 44 missions have been undertaken between 2017 and 2026, of which five have failed, and all of them are national security missions.
This is a disturbing pattern.
While India is rightly proud of ISRO’s achievements, it must fix its PSLV fast, as a lot is riding on this rocket, not only for India’s space ambitions but also for enhancing its military surveillance capabilities.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from the University of Sheffield, UK.
- VIEWS PERSONAL OF THE AUTHOR
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
