The Indian Space Research Organisation on Sunday afternoon shared an update hours after its new small-launch vehicle lifted off, carrying a satellite with payloads made by 750 girl students - from rural parts of India- and an earth observation satellite.
The historic liftoff was carried out after a 7.5 hour-long countdown but minutes after the SSLV took its maiden flight, and the launch was in its third phase, a top ISRO official said that “data loss was experienced in the terminal stage”.
"All the stages performed normally. Both the satellites were injected. But, the orbit achieved was less than expected, which makes it unstable," the space agency said in a statement.
Later, the ISRO said the SSLV D1 placed satellites into elliptical orbit instead of a circular orbit and the satellites are no longer usable. “The failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for salvage action caused the deviation,” the ISRO said.
After the loss of data, a tweet by the ISRO in the morning read: “SSLV-D1/EOS-02 Mission: Maiden flight of SSLV is completed. All stages performed as expected. Data loss is observed during the terminal stage. It is being analysed. Will be updated soon. (sic)”
{{/usCountry}}After the loss of data, a tweet by the ISRO in the morning read: “SSLV-D1/EOS-02 Mission: Maiden flight of SSLV is completed. All stages performed as expected. Data loss is observed during the terminal stage. It is being analysed. Will be updated soon. (sic)”
{{/usCountry}}The new small-launch vehicle is aimed to launch mini, nano, and micro satellites, weighing between 10-500 kgs. “It offers low turn-around time, flexibility in accommodating multiple satellites, launch-on-demand feasibility, minimal launch infrastructure requirements," says ISRO.
So far, the space agency has relied on the PSLV (Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle) for carrying satellites.
The mission was also significant because the the AzaadiSAT developed by the girl students was meant to mark 75 years of India’s independence. The ground system - developed by 'Space Kidz India' - will be utilised for receiving the data from this satellite, the space agency earlier said.
EOS-02 - an earth observation satellite - was the other satellite that was carried by the SSLV in its first flight.