ISRO's PSLV-C62 mission falls short after 'anomaly' during flight, missed orbit: What went wrong?

ISRO's PSLV suffered a second consecutive setback after the PSLV-C62 rocket, carrying 16 satellites, including a foreign Earth Observation satellite, ‘encountered an anomaly’, with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirming that a deviation was observed during the rocket's third stage.

The deviation prevented the placing of satellites in the intended orbit and all16 satellites were lost. This is the second consecutive mission failure for the PSLV as a similar, previous attempt in May 2025 (PSLV-C61-EOS-09) also did not succeed.

What went wrong in ISRO’s PSLV-C62 mission?

ISRO chairman V Narayanan said disturbances in the rocket and later deviation from flight path was observed when strap-on motors were providing thrust during the flight's third stage to propel the vehicle to the intended altitude.

The early stages of the flight unfolded as planned, before the anomaly was observed later in the PSLV-C62 mission.

Moments before the anomaly was detected

As the 22.5-hour countdown concluded, the 44.4 metre tall four-stage rocket lifted off as scheduled at 10.18 am from the spaceport in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. The mission was to deploy a primary Earth Observation satellite and multiple co-passenger satellites into a 512 km Sun-Synchronous Orbit, after a flight journey of about 17 minutes.

The automatic launch sequence commenced following approval from the mission director. ISRO scientists provided real-time updates as the vehicle ascended. The initial phases of the flight proceeded according to plan.

However, after the announcement that the "third stage ignited", an uneasy calm took over the Mission Control Centre.

In his address at the centre, Narayanan said, "The PSLV is a four-stage vehicle with two solid stages and two liquid stages. The performance of the vehicle up to the end of the third stage was expected. Close to the end of the third stage we are seeing more disturbance in the vehicle and subsequently, there was a deviation observed in the flight path."

ISRO confirms ‘anomaly’

Confirming the ‘anomaly’ detected on its 'X' handle, ISRO said, "The PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of PS3 (third stage) of the vehicle. A detailed analysis has been initiated."

Later, in a brief press conference, Narayanan, who is also the Secretary of Department of Space, said, "As all of you are aware, today we attempted PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission... the mission could not proceed in the expected (flight) path. That is the information right now available."

Further, he said: "We are going through the data and with the data collected from all the ground stations and once the data analysis is completed, we shall come back to you."