Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh
The Mission of India’s eighth Navigation Satellite IRNSS-1H has failed as heat shield failed to open up, ISRO Chairman A S Kiran Kumar said today. He said the launch was a success till the third stage and it was expected to be a good success.
“The heat shield did not get separated as a result of which satellite did not complete the 4th stage. We are getting into the details of what happened,” Mr Kumar said. The launch of this satellite would have given a new leap in space India launching its own constellation of navigation and earth observation constellation of satellites but ISRO would complete the programme at the earliest after this setback, he said. The maiden launch of India’s first private-sector manufactured satellite, the IRNSS-1H, was declared unsuccessful today. As Kiran Kumar, the Chief of Space Agency ISRO, which handled the launch, said the satellite’s protective heat shield, which is expected to separate and drop off, failed to do so. The 1,425 kg satellite had piggybacked on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was on its 41st mission.
Launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the Satellite was expected to fill in for one of the seven orbiting satellite of NavIC, which is malfunctioning. NavIC, is a system of seven satellites, powers India’s homegrown Global Positioning System.