Something deeply unsettling happened on Monday morning at Sriharikota. For the second time in eight months, India's most dependable rocket—the PSLV—failed mid-flight, and once again, the problem struck at exactly the same spot: the third stage. If you're wondering why this matters so much, imagine your most reliable family car suddenly breaking down twice in the same way within months. That's the kind of concern rippling through India's space community right now.
Looking back to May 18, 2025. ISRO launched PSLV-C61 in its XL configuration, the heavy-lifter version with six strap-on boosters for extra thrust, carrying a crucial radar satellite called EOS-09 that was meant to watch over our borders and help with everything from farming to disaster management.
"The rocket had lifted off beautifully, the first stage roared as expected, the second stage performed perfectly. Then came the third stage, a solid fuel motor that, once lit, burns like a firework and cannot be stopped or adjusted. Suddenly, the chamber pressure dropped. Think of it like a pressure cooker losing steam unexpectedly. The rocket couldn't gain enough speed, and the mission failed. We lost the satellite, and with it, months of work by hundreds of scientists," explained space analyst Girish Linganna.
ISRO Chairman V Narayanan had called it a chamber pressure issue. A committee was formed, investigations happened, and by August, they said they'd found the problem and fixed it. Everyone breathed easier. The PSLV has been our workhorse since 1993, successfully launching over 60 missions, including the famous Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter. Before 2025, it had failed only twice: once in 1993 during its very first flight, and once in 2017 when a heat shield wouldn't separate. This was supposed to be a rare blip, quickly corrected.
Monday, January 12, 2026. Another PSLV mission, C62, this time in the DL variant with just two strap-on boosters, a lighter configuration for smaller payloads. It carried EOS-N1—a hyperspectral satellite meant to study everything from crop health to water quality—along with 15 smaller satellites from various companies. The launch at 10.18 am started perfectly. First stage, flawless. Second stage, smooth. Then the third stage fired up, and for a while, everything looked normal. But near the end of its burn, something went terribly wrong. The rocket started experiencing what engineers call "disturbances in roll rates"—essentially, it began tumbling and spinning when it shouldn't have. The flight path deviated, and altitude and speed dropped below the required levels. The mission failed. None of the satellites reached orbit. They're likely lost.
"Two failures, eight months apart, both in the third stage. This isn't a coincidence anymore. It's a pattern, and patterns demand answers. The third stage uses solid fuel. Once you light it, there's no turning it off, no adjusting the throttle like you can with liquid engines. So when something goes wrong, it goes wrong fast. The May failure showed a pressure drop, suggesting incomplete or uneven burning inside the motor. Today's failure showed the rocket losing control and tumbling, which could mean the nozzle that steers the rocket malfunctioned, or there were structural issues causing uneven thrust," added Linganna.
As per this analyst, the worrying part is that both rockets likely used third stages from similar production batches, possibly with components from the same suppliers. Could there be a hidden manufacturing defect that the previous investigation missed? Or did the fixes applied after May not address the root problem completely? ISRO makes these motors in-house at facilities in Thiruvananthapuram, but various suppliers provide raw materials and components.
Quality control in rocket manufacturing is brutally unforgiving even microscopic cracks in the motor casing or tiny flaws in insulation can cause catastrophic failures.
Today's C62 mission was handled by NewSpace India Limited, ISRO's commercial arm, carrying paying customers, including international satellites. For years, PSLV has been India's calling card in the global launch market—reliable, affordable, and trusted by nations worldwide. This double failure doesn't just hurt our strategic defence capabilities; it threatens India's hard-earned reputation as a dependable commercial launch provider, potentially costing multi-million dollar contracts as customers nervously eye other options.
But ISRO has bounced back before, and they've done it quickly. One can recall the 2017 failure when the heat shield wouldn't separate. ISRO investigated thoroughly, fixed the explosive separation system, added better testing procedures, and the very next launch succeeded beautifully. That led to years of perfect flights. The same DNA of rigorous analysis and relentless problem-solving exists today.
What needs to happen now? "First, absolute transparency. ISRO must share detailed findings with the public, not just technical committees. Second, this is the perfect moment to bring in India's growing private space sector—companies like Skyroot, Agnikul, and industrial giants like HAL and L&T, who are already building PSLV components. Fresh eyes, independent testing, and advanced simulations—these can catch problems that internal teams might miss. Third, ISRO needs to slow down and be thorough. The pressure to launch frequently is real, but not at the cost of reliability," pointed out Linganna.
On Monday, due to this failure, strategic satellites are lost, millions of rupees evaporated, paying customers are disappointed, and, more painfully, confidence is shaken. But space exploration has always been about learning from failure. Every successful space programme—NASA, SpaceX, the European Space Agency—has stumbled and risen stronger. ISRO's team includes some of the most talented engineers on the planet. They will dig into every byte of telemetry data, examine every centimetre of similar motors, run exhaustive tests, and find the answer.
The PSLV isn't finished. It's just going through a rough patch, the kind that makes teams sharper and systems more robust. When it flies again, and it will, it'll carry not just satellites, but the lessons learned from these difficult days. India's space journey doesn't pause for setbacks; it learns from them and pushes forward, always forward.