Repeated Failures of PSLV: Causes, Concerns and Impact on India’s Space Programme

Repeated failures of PSLV missions raise concerns over reliability and mission safety. Understand the causes, recent incidents, and implications for India’s space programme and satellite launches.

Table of Contents

Context

India’s premier launch vehicle, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) — long regarded as the workhorse of the Indian space programme — has recently faced two consecutive mission failures, prompting serious institutional introspection within the Indian space ecosystem.

Why Consecutive Failures Are Significant

● PSLV Was ISRO’s Most Reliable Rocket: PSLV maintained a success rate above 90% across decades, launching major missions like Chandrayaan-1 and Mars Orbiter Mission. Two failures in succession are therefore statistically unusual and strategically serious.

● Failure at the Same Stage Indicates Pattern: Both missions experienced malfunction in the third stage (PS3) — responsible for providing velocity needed to achieve orbit. A pressure drop or ignition anomaly prevents orbital insertion.

● Break in ISRO’s “Fail-Fix-Fly” Tradition: Historically, ISRO publicly released Failure Analysis Committee reports before the next launch. However, details of the PSLV-C61 failure were not publicly released before PSLV-C62 flew — raising transparency concerns.

Why a Special Committee Was Constituted

Traditionally, ISRO investigates failures through internal Failure Analysis Committees (FACs). However, the recurrence of similar failures triggered concerns about broader issues.
The government therefore ordered a third-party systemic review to restore confidence among International launch customers and Private space companies.
Importantly, many members are external to ISRO, ensuring independence and credibility.

Composition of the Committee: The committee includes eminent scientists and external experts, notably:

VijayRaghavan, former Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India.
Somanath, former Chairman of ISRO.

The committee is expected to submit findings to ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan before April 2026.

What the Committee Will Investigate

Manufacturing Ecosystem Review: The committee will check whether component defects arose during production or due to inconsistent quality standards among private suppliers involved in rocket manufacturing.
Procurement and Vendor Oversight: It will examine vendor selection, auditing, and procurement processes to see if increased outsourcing affected supervision and quality control.
Assembly and Integration Processes: The probe will assess coordination during rocket assembly and whether integration delays or procedural lapses affected launch readiness.
Quality Assurance and Testing: Testing and certification systems, especially third-stage ignition validation, will be reviewed to identify gaps in verification before launch approval.
Accountability Framework: The committee will study whether responsibility can be clearly fixed across ISRO units and private partners involved in manufacturing and operations.
Organisational Decision-Making: It will analyse institutional issues such as schedule pressure, communication gaps, and risk assessment practices within mission planning.