ISRO New Rocket Launch: Satellite No Longer Usable, Will Soon Be Back With SSLV-D2, Says Space Agency

The launch that took off with great promise, unfortunately hit a snag due to which the satellite mission was unable to meet the objectives. While a committee will analyse the issues, ISRO has asserted to be back with SSLV-D2 soon.

Delhi: The Small Satellite Launch Vehicle -D1 (SSLV-D1) carrying Earth Observation Satellite Satellites  and another a student-made satellite-AzaadiSAT  unfortunately  were placed in an unstable orbit and are no longer usable, the Indian Space Research Organistaion (ISRO) said. They further have said that the issue is reasonably identified an that the obejcetives of today’s launch mission were not met.

“All the stages performed normal. Both the satellites were injected. But, the orbit achieved was less than expected, which makes it unstable,” the space agency had said. The status of the mission was updated hours later the date loss was experienced.  ISRO Chairman S Somanath informed the space agency’s maiden Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) – SSLV-D1/EOS 02 – suffered “data loss” at the terminal stage.

UPDATE | SSLV-D1 carrying Earth Observation Satellite

Satellites placed are no longer usable. Issue is reasonably identified. Failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for a salvage action caused the deviation. A committee would analyse and recommend: ISRO pic.twitter.com/AokPsCgjLi

— ANI (@ANI) August 7, 2022

ISRO on Sunday launched its first new rocket the SSLV-D1 carrying Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-02) and a student-made satellite-AzaadiSAT from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Andhra Pradesh’s Sriharikota.

To mark the country’s celebrations of “Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav”, the SSLV, co-passenger satellite called “AzaadiSAT” comprising 75 payloads built by 750 students from 75 rural government schools across India was launched on Sunday.

The SSLV is 34m tall, about 10m less than the PSLV and it has a vehicle diameter of two metres as compared to 2.8 metres of PSLV. It also has a lift off mass of 120 tonne while PSLV has 320 tonnes, which can carry payloads upto 1,800 kgs.

(With agency inputs)