Mission failure will not dent PSLV's reputation as trusted workhorse: Isro

Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Friday ruled out reports suggesting that the failure of PSLV-C39 mission will dent rocket's reputation as trusted workhorse. Isro said that the rocket performed well during the mission.

Isro's attempt to put country's eighth navigation satellite in Orbit failed on Thursday. Questions are now being raised whether it will have any implication on its commercial interests.

"The satellite is inside the heat shield and we have to go through a detailed analysis to see what has happened," said A S Kiran Kumar, Isro chairman, soon after the failed launch. " Apart from the heat shield separation, all the rest of the activities have gone on smoothly, but in terms of the mission, it is unsuccessful because we are not in a position to put it to the actual orbit," he added.

Whether the failure would impact ISRO's commercial interest, Kumar said the PSLV has successfully carried out 39 consecutive launches in the past. "Only the heat shield separation, command and subsequent operations could not be completed. We have to analyse the details to pinpoint the exact reasons for the failure." 

The satellite was also the first one Isro built jointly with a private consortium, in its attempt to leverage India's private sector to build spacecraft in the country. "It would be unfair to target the private sector for the failure," Kumar said.

The IRNSS-1H, was built by a consortium led by Alpha Design Technologies, a defence equipment supplier from Bengaluru, over eight months. A team of 70 scientists from ISRO supervised the operations. The consortium was to build two satellites and the second is expected to be finished by April 2018.

So far, private firms have only built components and systems for India's satellites and rockets. Isro had planned to tap private players over a decade ago to build its satellites, but the experiment failed as it found the industry wanted large-scale commitment before it began work. Isro has already announced a tender to invite private firms to build bigger satellites.