ISRO’s PSLV-C62 mission fails! Third phase lost its way due to technical glitch, 15 satellites affected

A total of 16 satellites, including the secretive ‘Anwesha’ developed by DRDO, got lost in space.

ISRO launches PSLV-C62: Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)’s first satellite mission of 2026 ‘PSLV-C62’ has failed. This rocket was launched with 15 satellites from the space center in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh at 10:18 am on Monday. The objective of the mission was to place the Earth Observation Satellite EOS-09 Anvesha and 14 co-passenger satellites into a Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at an altitude of 512 km. ISRO chief Dr. V. Narayanan said that due to a technical glitch in the third stage of the rocket, it deviated from its planned path.

About 8 months ago, on May 18, 2025, ISRO’s PSLV-C61 mission had also failed in the third stage due to a technical snag. The objective of this mission was to place the EOS-09 Earth Observation Satellite into a 524 km sun-synchronous polar orbit. This was ISRO’s 101st launch mission.

Out of 15 satellites, 7 are Indian and 8 are foreign.

Let us tell you that out of the 15 satellites launched, 7 were Indian, which were prepared by Hyderabad-based Dhruva Space, while the remaining 8 satellites were from France, Nepal, Brazil and UK. This launch was significant for India’s private space sector, as it was the first time an Indian private company played such a large stake in a PSLV mission. This mission was being operated under the supervision of New Space India Limited (NSIL). NSIL is the commercial arm of ISRO.

The PSLV rocket was about to complete its 64th flight with the PSLV-C62 mission. Till now PSLV has completed 63 successful flights and is counted among the most reliable launch vehicles in the world. Important missions like Chandrayaan-1, Mangalyaan and Aditya-L1 have been launched with this rocket. The previous mission of PSLV was PSLV-C61, which failed due to a technical snag on 18 May 2025.

Anvesha Satellite has been developed by Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO). It is an intelligence (spy) satellite equipped with advanced imaging capabilities, aimed at precise monitoring and mapping. Despite being at an altitude of several hundred kilometers from the earth, this satellite can take pictures of enemies hidden in bushes, forests or bunkers.

Anwesha works on ‘Hyperspectral Remote Sensing’ (HRS) technology, which detects a wide spectrum of light. This means it can recognize hundreds of nuanced shades of light, rather than just a few colors.

Since this satellite detects subtle colors, it is able to figure out what is actually in the image. It can be considered like a scanner which can identify soil, plants, human activities or any object on the basis of its different brightness.

So far six countries have launched HySIS satellites. Apart from India, America, China, Germany, Japan, Italy and Pakistan have also launched hyperspectral satellites. India had earlier launched its first hyperspectral imaging satellite HySIS on 29 November 2018, which weighed 380 kg and could detect light in 55 spectral bands. Anwesha is an upgraded version of HySIS and has greater hyperspectral capability.

(For more news apart from ISRO’s PSLV-C62 rocket deviates from flight path news in Hindi, stay tuned to Rozanaspokesman Hindi)

end-of