India’s first space launch of 2026 hit a hurdle on Monday after ISRO’s PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly in the rocket’s third stage, causing a deviation from its planned flight path and leaving the fate of its satellites unconfirmed. The PSLV-C62 rocket lifted off from the First Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, carrying the EOS-N1 (Anvesha) Earth observation satellite along with 14 co-passenger satellites. Minutes into the flight, however, a disturbance was detected in the third stage, ISRO officials said. Confirming the issue, ISRO stated that the mission “encountered an anomaly” and that engineers are analysing telemetry data to determine whether the payloads were successfully placed into the intended polar sun-synchronous orbit.
ISRO Analysing Data After Anomaly
“Today, we had attempted the PSLV-C62 launch mission. We are analysing the data and shall come back to you,” ISRO said in a brief statement. ISRO chairman V Narayanan said the disturbance caused the rocket to deviate from its intended trajectory. As of now, ISRO has not confirmed the deployment status of EOS-N1 or the 14 domestic and international co-passenger satellites. The mission was significant as PSLV-C62 marked the 64th flight of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle and ISRO’s first launch of the year. Notably, the previous PSLV mission in 2025 had also been aborted following a technical observation, adding to the stakes of Monday’s launch.
The rocket was also scheduled to conduct an in-orbit demonstration of a small re-entry capsule developed by a Spanish startup, arranged through NewSpace India Ltd, ISRO’s commercial arm. ISRO said a detailed update will be shared once the ongoing analysis of the anomaly and flight data is completed.