Anomaly in PSLV detected and resolved: Jitendra Singh

Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh on Saturday said that the anomaly in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has been resolved.

Dr. Singh said on the sidelines of the Research, Industry, Start-up and Entrepreneurship (RISE) Conclave 2026 in Bengaluru, that the national level expert committee constituted to review the reason for anomaly in PSLV Vehicle has submitted its report and the anomaly has been detected.

“The report has come out and the anomaly has been detected. However we cannot share that (reason for the anomaly) on a public platform. But experts are working on it, which has been resolved and very soon we will be back on the track,” Dr. Singh said replying to a query by The Hindu.

It can be recalled that the PSLV which is referred to as the workhorse of the Indian Space Research Organisations (ISRO) had suffered two back to back setbacks.

On January 12, 2026 the PSLV-C62 mission carrying the EOS-N1 earth observation satellite failed to finish its intended trajectory after an anomaly was detected during the end of the third stage of the launch vehicle.

On May 18, 2025, while ISRO attempted to launch the EOS-09 satellite aboard the PSLV-C61 mission, it couldn’t complete it. It was also due to an anomaly in the third stage of the rocket.

Following this a National level expert committee was constituted which included K. Vijay Raghavan, former Principal Scientific Advisor, and former ISRO Chairman S. Somanath.

Dr. Singh said that the two back to back failures of the PSLV should not be seen as a failure but a setback and learning experience.

“There is no such thing as failure in a space mission. It is sometimes delayed, sometimes a setback which actually is a learning experience. Even if you take it that way, if you call every unsuccessful or half successful attempt as a failure statistically our number of so-called failures is much lesser than the USA. Chandrayaan-3 and Mars Orbiter Mission were successful in their very first attempt so that way we have a better statistical record,” Dr. Singh said.

ISRO Chairman V. Narayanan said that ISRO’s next launch, which would be the first one since the PSLV failure in January, would take place next month.

“We are building the rocket and may be within a month we will launch. The first launch will be a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) mission and subsequently we will launch the PSLV,” Mr. Narayanan told The Hindu.