The Indian Space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), failed to place its payload GISAT-1 / EOS-03 into orbit.
“GSLV-F10 launch took place today at 0543 Hrs IST as scheduled. Performance of first and second stages was normal. However, Cryogenic Upper Stage ignition did not happen due to technical anomaly. The mission couldn’t be accomplished as intended,” said the ISRO release.
The launch took place earlier in the day, and the satellite was planned to be placed in a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit by the GSLV-F10 and then reach its final geostationary orbit.
ISRO had installed a 4 metre diameter Ogive shaped payload fairing (OPLF) for the first time in GSLV to accommodate a larger spacecraft.
EOS-03 is meant to provide Indian with near real-time images of large parts of the country and will be used for monitoring water bodies, crops, vegetation, forest cover, and natural disasters such as floods and cyclones. It was launched to space before EOS-02 which is not rescheduled for September-October. In November last year, ISRO had launched EOS-01.
This is the first failure of an Indian space launch since 2017, after 14 consecutive successful missions.
