India's move to privatise PSLV rocket production through IN-SPACe has triggered debate over national security, ageing technology and the agency's role.
While recovery efforts are ongoing, the likelihood of recovery currently appears low.
The Indian space agency has already begun work on the third generation of the earth observation satellite -- the first of which will be ready by 2018 and boost the capability to generate digital maps.
Indian Space Research Organisation's 101st mission from Sriharikota, an earth observation satellite onboard the agency's trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket, could not be accomplished on Sunday following a pressure issue in the third stage of the launch vehicle, the space agency said.
ISRO has announced plans for seven launch missions by March, including the first uncrewed mission for the Gaganyaan project and demonstrations of new satellite technologies.
The 2,268-kg GISAT-1 was originally slated to be launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh's Nellore district, about 100 kms north of Chennai, on March 5 last year but was postponed a day before the blast-off due to technical reasons.
The main focus of the all weather RISAT-1B satellite will be to observe the Indian land with its C-band synthetic aperture radar.
The role of the space sector in armed conflicts came into sharp focus during Operation Sindoor, which saw extensive use of drones and loitering munitions and tested the capabilities of air defence systems such as indigenously developed Akash Teer.
AzaadiSAT had around 75 small payloads developed by schoolgirls of 75 rural schools.
This would be the 44th flight of the PSLV and the third launch by ISRO this year.
The launch marks a significant milestone for the space agency as it is the 50th flight of PSLV and the 75th vehicle mission from Sriharikota. The 628 kg satellite is meant for applications in various fields like agriculture, forestry and disaster management support. It would also serve military purposes.
India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle will lift off from Sriharikota on July 10 taking five foreign satellites into orbit, including three earth observation spacecraft whose imagery will be utilised by a Beijing-based company as well as an experimental nano-satellite that will deploy a large, light-weight sail in order to hasten its descent back to earth.
ISRO stated that the disengagement of at least one contact -- in both the main and redundant paths -- of a connector led to the failure of NVS-02.
'This policy is a vision to position Karnataka as the epicentre of India's space ambitions'
This is ISRO's new record of launching 20 satellites, including those from the US, Germany, Canada and Indonesia.
Twice every 12 days, the NISAR satellite will scan nearly all of earth's land and ice surfaces to measure changes in the planet's ecosystems, growth and retreat of its land and sea ice, and deformation of its crust.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched its third and final developmental flight of Small Satellite Launch Vehicle here on Friday whose payloads can be used in applications like satellite-based surveillance, disaster and environmental monitoring, fire detection, volcanic activity among others.
Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission is collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice.
The polar satellite launch vehicle's 52nd mission is scheduled for lift-off at 15.41 hours on Thursday from the second launch pad at the spaceport of Sriharikota 'subject to weather conditions'.
The strategic partnership aims to unify the two companies' end-to-end, indigenously-developed capabilities across the upstream and downstream segments of the Space value chain.
India is set to take its first steps towards its own human space flight when the uncrewed Gaganyaan mission soars to the skies later this year. Private players in the space sector are also gearing up for launching satellites on home-built rockets.
'A solid motor, once ignited, burns until the propellant is exhausted. It cannot simply stop mid-burn,' said a retired senior ISRO official. 'That is what makes this failure puzzling.' Venkatachari Jagannathan reports on the latest PSLV failure.
The NASA-ISRO NISAR mission has entered its 90-day commissioning phase, involving rigorous checks and calibrations to prepare the satellite for Earth observation. Scientists highlight the collaborative benefits and technological advancements of the mission.
ISRO to launch a 6,500 kg communication satellite built by the US, marking a significant milestone in the Indian space program after the successful launch of the NASA-ISRO NISAR mission.
On Sunday, July 30, 2023, the Indian Space Research Organisation successfully launched its proven Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket carrying seven Singapore satellites from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota and placed them into intended orbits.
Kwatra termed India's successful launch of an American communication satellite on Wednesday as a 'very important and big day' for partnership between Washington and New Delhi, saying it caps a series of achievements in 2025 in bilateral space cooperation between the countries.
The RISAT-2B would replace the RISAT-2, which has been actively used by India to monitor activities in camps across the border in Pakistan to thwart infiltration bids by terrorists.
The need for NavIC was cemented after India was denied access to crucial navigation data from global providers during the 1999 Kargil War.
Other than the Cartosat-2 series satellite, the PSLV is carrying 29 nano satellites from 14 countries - Austria, Belgium, Chile, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, the United Kingdom and the United States of America besides a nano satellite from India.
The ISRO is strengthening 'eye in the sky', which helped the Indian army carry out surgical strikes last year, with the launch.
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced that the fourth edition of the PSLV Orbital platform Experiment Module (POEM-4), used for the space docking experiment mission, has successfully re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. The module, a repurposed spent upper stage of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, impacted at 02:33 UTC (08:03 IST) on April 04, 2025, in the Indian Ocean. This successful re-entry signifies ISRO's commitment to mitigating space debris and contributing to the long-term sustainability of the outer space environment. POEM-4 had hosted 24 payloads during its mission life, yielding valuable science data. ISRO and the United States Space Command (USSPACECOM) closely monitored the module's orbit decay and predicted the re-entry date. This event showcases ISRO's proactive approach to responsible space operations.
'There's too much coincidence in back-to-back failures of missions critical to national security.'
Thursday's launch is the last one of 2020 for ISRO.
This is the first deal by an Indian startup after the sector was opened to private companies in 2020.
On Sunday morning, in its mission to place an earth observation satellite and students satellite into the low earth orbit, the SSLV-D1/EOS-02 blasted off precisely at 9.18 am amid cloudy skies from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this spaceport.
ISRO has projected wheat production of 122.24 million tonnes.
Noting that the PSLV was a versatile launch vehicle which can do different jobs and put satellites in different orbits, he said streamlining of this operation with improved capabilities is on.
China on Friday announced plans to boost space cooperation with Pakistan, including the development of a space centre and launching of more satellites for its all-weather ally.
ISRO chairman S Somanath said the success gave the space agency "greater confidence," as the GSLV will be next deployed in the NISAR mission, a collaborative effort with the US' NASA.
In the first dedicated mission of its commercial arm New Space India Limited (NSIL), the Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday successfully launched Brazil's earth observation satellite Amazonia-1 and 18 other co-passengers, including five built by students, onboard a Polar rocket from the spaceport in Sriharikota.
