PSLV-C62 flew perfectly for eight minutes and then stopped following its path

The 44.4-metre Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle lifted off from the First Launch Pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 10:18:30 IST on January 12, carrying the DRDO-built EOS-N1 earth observation satellite, code-named Anvesha, and 15 co-passengers. The first two stages performed nominally. Towards the end of the third stage, the vehicle began to drift from its intended flight path and the mission could not be completed.

• The 64th flight of the PSLV and the fifth mission of the PSLV-DL variant, flown for NewSpace India Limited.
• NSIL's ninth dedicated commercial mission, with co-passengers from domestic and international customers.
• EOS-N1 (Anvesha): a hyperspectral imaging satellite for strategic surveillance.
• AayulSAT from Bengaluru startup OrbitAID Aerospace, intended as India's first on-orbit propellant-transfer demonstrator.
• The Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator re-entry capsule, a European payload meant to ride PS4 back into the atmosphere.

Close to the end of the third stage, we saw some disturbance in the vehicle roll rates, and subsequently there is a deviation observed in the flight path. We are analysing the data, and we shall come back at the earliest.

What makes this a different kind of failure is the pattern. PSLV-C61, launched on May 18, 2025, lost the EOS-09 satellite to a third-stage anomaly. ISRO convened a failure analysis committee after that flight and returned the vehicle to service; the corrective measures implemented on the strength of that review are now the subject of renewed scrutiny, because the same stage has misbehaved twice.

For the commercial side of the book, the immediate loss is concrete: NSIL's ninth commercial mission did not deliver, and a demonstrator intended to prove satellite refuelling in low Earth orbit did not get the chance. The PSLV has flown 64 times and is one of the workhorses of India's launch portfolio. It has now missed twice in a row.