spacetoday.net: Indian PSLV launch fails

Posted: Sun, Sep 3, 2017, 9:49 AM ET (1349 GMT)
PSLV launch June 2017 (ISRO)

India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) suffered a rare launch failure August 31. The PSLV, carrying a navigation satellite, lifted off at 9:30 am EDT (1330 GMT), and initial phases of the flight appeared to be normal. However, the upper stage and payload ended up in a lower orbit than planned. The Indian space agency ISRO confirmed that the rocket's payload fairing failed to separate, declaring the mission a failure. The launch failure was the first for the PSLV in 20 years, and will have significant effects on both India's space program as well as the international smallsat community, which had increasingly been taking advantage of secondary payload opportunities on the vehicle. The payload, the IRNSS-1H satellite, was a replacement for the country's first navigation satellite, whose onboard atomic clocks had failed.