ISRO's PSLV-C62 Mission 'Encounters Anomaly' During Third Stage After Launch - What Went Wrong?

ISRO's trusted workhorse PSLV lifted off from the spaceport at Sriharikota on Monday, carrying an earth observation satellite along with several commercial payloads for both domestic and overseas customers.

This marks the first space mission of the year for ISRO. Following the launch, the PSLV-C62 encountered an anomaly during the third stage of the flight. The 44.4 metre tall four-stage PSLV-C62 rocket soared from the first launch pad at a prefixed time of 10.18 hours on Monday. According to ISRO, the first two stages performed within expected parameters, and at the end of the third stage (PS3), the vehicle experienced "disturbances".Addressing the team at the Mission Control Centre here, ISRO chief Narayanan said, "The PSLV is a four-stage vehicle with two solid stages and two liquid stages. The performance of the vehicle up to the end of the third stage was expected. Close to the end of the third stage we are seeing more disturbance in the vehicle and subsequently, there was a deviation observed in the flight path." "We are analysing the data and we shall come back at the earliest," he said.

Later, in a post on 'X', ISRO said, "the PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of PS3 (third stage). A detailed analysis has been initiated."

The mission is part of the contract secured by NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO. After a journey of 17 minutes, the rocket was expected to place the satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of about 511 km.The PSLV-C62/EOS-N1 mission was planned to first deploy the Earth Observation Satellite built by Thailand and the United Kingdom, followed by the other co-passenger satellites into the sun-synchronous orbit.

PSLV has completed 63 flights so far, including the ambitious Chandrayaan-1, Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), and Aditya-L1 mission.The previous launch of a PSLV rocket, was the PSLV C-61 Earth Observation Satellite 09 mission launched on May 18, 2025. It could not be accomplished due to an 'observation' in the third stage of the rocket.