Sriharikota: The highly reliable launch vehicle of Isro — the PSLV rocket — suffered a rare failure on Thursday as a navigation satellite onboard PSLV-C39 could not be injected due to the failure in the heat shield separation after liftoff.
The PSLV-C39 rocket and IRNSS-1H satellite, jointly assembled by Isro with private companies, together cost around Rs 240 crores.
Isro chairman A.S. Kiran Kumar said: “The heat shield was not separated. We will do a detailed analysis. Though the rest of the activities had gone smoothly, the mission is unsuccessful because the satellite is not in a position to go to the intended orbit.”
The IRNSS-1H was jointly assembled by the space agency and a private consortium of small companies led by Alpha Design Technologies, a Bengaluru-based firm.
