๐ ISRO PSLV-C61 Failure Explained | EOS-09 Satellite Loss ๐ | What Went Wrong in India’s Space Mission 2025? ๐ฐ️
๐ What Happened to ISRO’s PSLV-C61 Mission?
On 18th May 2025, India launched a big space mission with PSLV-C61 rocket, but sadly, it failed because it couldn’t drop its main satellite—EOS-09 (also called RISAT-1B)—into the correct orbit.
๐ฏ Mission Objective
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Main Goal: To put EOS-09 into space.
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What is EOS-09? It’s an Earth Observation Satellite.
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Special Feature: It has a radar that can take pictures even in clouds, night, and bad weather (C-band SAR).
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Why Important? It was going to help in:
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Farming and crops
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Forest check
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Flood and disaster response
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Defence surveillance (like watching border areas)
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๐ฐ️ What Kind of Orbit Was Planned?
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The target was Sun-Synchronous Orbit. It means the satellite always sees Earth in same light condition every time—useful for taking clear pictures.
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Different Orbits (for understanding):
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Sun-Synchronous: 600–800 km high
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Geostationary: 35,800 km high (used for TV, weather)
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Polar: 200–1,000 km high (covers both poles)
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Low Earth Orbit: 160–1,000 km
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Medium Earth Orbit: Around 1,000 km
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๐ PSLV-C61: India's Trusted Rocket
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63rd time PSLV was launched (used many times before, very successful)
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This one used PSLV-XL type (a stronger version).
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Launched from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
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Time of Launch: 5:59 AM, 18 May 2025
๐ What Went Wrong During Launch?
๐งฉ Stage-wise Breakdown
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PSLV works in 4 stages. Here's what happened in each:
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Stage 1 (Solid booster) – Worked fine.
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Stage 2 (Liquid engine) – Worked fine too.
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Stage 3 (Solid motor) – This is where problem came.
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Stage 4 (Liquid engine) – Was never started because Stage 3 already failed.
๐ฅ The Main Problem – Stage 3 Failure
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In Stage 3, the chamber pressure dropped suddenly. That means rocket was not pushing itself hard enough to go further.
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Because of that, it lost speed and height.
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ISRO stopped Stage 4 to avoid creating space junk or crashing into something.
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EOS-09 never reached space. It fell back to Earth and got destroyed.
๐ Why This Happened? (Suspected Reasons)
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To determine the cause, ISRO assembled a group of specialists.
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They're checking:
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Rocket fuel burning wrongly
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Damage inside the engine nozzle
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Seals or pipes that didn’t hold pressure
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Some mistake during rocket building
๐ง Why This Satellite Was Important?
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EOS-09 was useful for:
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Watching crops and estimating production
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Seeing floods or landslides from space
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Helping army or navy for border patrol
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Managing disaster like cyclones
๐ Impact on ISRO’s Record
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ISRO’s PSLV is very reliable. It had 50+ success launches before.
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Last time it failed was in 2017 (PSLV-C39 – heat shield didn’t open)
๐ ️ What ISRO Will Do Next?
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A full Root Cause Analysis (RCA) is going on.
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ISRO said they will:
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Fix what went wrong
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Do better testing before future launches
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Maybe redesign Stage 3 system
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A new satellite EOS-09 replacement may come soon – probably RISAT-1C
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