The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) EOS-3 mission failed on August 12 after the GSLV rocket carrying it malfunctioned five minutes from lift-off.
Earth Observation Satellite (EOS-03) was the first of two Geo Imaging Satellite (GISAT) to be developed by ISRO with the other being EOS-05.
The GISATs are capable of providing near real time imaging of areas. If successful, EOS-03 could have helped in providing disaster warning and monitoring as well as mapping agricultural lands, forest covers and water bodies.
The EOS-03 was first scheduled to be launched on March 5, 2020 but was delayed after a technical issue forced the rocket to be rolled back to the assembly building from the Launchpad. The COVID-19 pandemic further delayed the launch to March 2021 but technical issues in the satellite pushed the launch to August.
Why Did GSLV-F10 Fail?
According to ISRO, the first two stages of GSLV-F10 went according to plan. However, the cryogenic upper stage ignition, which was the third stage, did not occur due to a technical anomaly.
The GSLV is a three-stage rocket which uses solid, liquid and cryogenic fuel in that order.
The GSLV-F10 was a Mark II configuration of the GSLV rocket which uses the ingenuously developed CE-7.5 cryogenic engine which uses liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen stored at low temperatures as fuel.
The third stage was responsible for inserting EOS-03 into its geosynchronous transfer orbit.
The CE-7.5 cryogenic engine was developed by India after the US blocked Russia from selling two cryogenic engines, technology transfer and skill-development programme in 1991.
The US' move pushed back India's progress until it was able to build its own cryogenic engine from scratch in 2001.
ISRO had used GSLV Mark II in seven missions before and had at only failed to launch once before Thursday's failure. In both cases, a malfunction in the third stage led to the mission's failure.
What Next For ISRO And GISAT?
Union minister of state (MoS) in charge of the department of space Jitendra Singh said that the mission could be scheduled again.
It is uncertain as to how EOS-03's failure would impact the launch of EOS-05 which is scheduled in 2022.
