GSLV (launch vehicle)

2021: Malfunction

On August 11, 2021, during the launch of the Indian launch vehicle for launching geosynchronous satellites (GSLV), its upper stage malfunctioned, as a result of which the satellite was lost.

The GSLV rocket rose from the Satish Dhavan Cosmodrome. The initial stages of the flight, including the combustion of four docked accelerators, the first and second stages, passed, as did the separation of the missile payload fairing.

At 5 minute after the start, the second stage with the cryogenic engine of the booster unit separated, which was supposed to catch fire a second later. Judging by the animation obtained from the telemetry of the launch vehicle shown in the webcast of the Indian space agency ISRO, the stage began to roll and lost control of the position. After the incident, a minute of silence came on the website of the Indian space agency, and after ISRO confirmed that the launch failed.

Indian GSLV rocket with satellite on board collapsed 6 minutes after launch

The launch could not be completely completed mainly due to the technical anomaly observed in the cryogenic stage, there are no other details about the failure yet. In a brief statement, ISRO reported that the upper stage engine could not ignite.

GSLV was carrying the EOS-03 satellite, formerly known as GISAT-1. The satellite was supposed to provide a continuous, but relatively low resolution, survey of India and nearby regions from the geostationary orbit, although ISRO published few technical details about the satellite.

This was the first launch of the GSLV Mark 2 since December 2018. ISRO expected to launch another GSLV Mark 2 launch at the end of 2021 and several more launches in 2022 and 2023. Most of these launches will carry communications, navigation or imaging satellites, but one of them will carry NISAR, a synthesized aperture radar for Earth study developed jointly by NASA and ISRO. Prior to this failure, the launch of NISAR was scheduled for early 2023.^[1]

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