CGUSAT-1 fails to reach orbit after ISRO PSLV-C62 anomaly

Bhubaneswar: It was heartbreak for students and teachers of CV Raman Global University (CGU), Bhubaneswar, on Monday as their communication satellite, CGUSAT-1, failed to reach orbit after the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) PSLV-C62 mission encountered an anomaly during the end of the third stage.CGUSAT-1, developed by CGU in collaboration with Dhruva Space, a full-stack space engineering solutions provider based in Hyderabad, was launched under the company’s ‘Polar Access-1’ programme. Had the satellite reached the orbit successfully, it could have supported continuity of communication when conventional networks are disrupted, said official sources at the university.The students and teachers, who worked on the satellite project during the last 1 year, were excited to celebrate CGUSAT-1’s launch.

However, the anomaly in the PSLV-C62 rocket prevented this. “We are very sad,” said Rahul Kumar Gupta, a student of computer science engineering, who was involved in the project through the ‘Space Club’.Soumya Mishra, assistant professor of electronics and communication engineering and custodian of the university’s ‘Space Club’ and ground station, said they felt sad after the failure of the mission at the third stage.

“But we will not give up and will prepare for the next launch. We created 2 spare satellites while building the one that went to space. We will test the spare satellites again and get ready for the next launch,” she added.Sunil Sarangi, former NIT Rourkela director and advisor to the CGUSAT-1 satellite project, said PSLV-C61 also faced a setback in May last year. “There was a review of the last mission and ISRO corrected that. We had high hopes that this mission would be a success, but it did not work out as per our expectations,” he added. He said they were excited to see their satellite reach orbit. “But we will try next time and prepare accordingly,” he added.