IronRain
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An Indian navigation satellite remained stuck to its launcher after climbing into orbit Thursday when the rocket’s aerodynamic payload shroud failed to jettison as planned several minutes after liftoff, dealing the country’s workhorse booster its first total failure since 1993.
Video from an on-board camera appeared to show the IRNSS 1H navigation craft still cocooned inside the fairing long after it was supposed to separate.
The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, A.S. Kiran Kumar, declared the launch a failure in a press conference after the flight, according to Indian news reports.
An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off at 1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast with the eighth satellite for the country’s regional navigation network. The payload was supposed to replace a spacecraft launched four years ago with faulty payload components.
Liftoff occurred at 7 p.m. Indian Standard Time.
The 144-foot-tall (44-meter) PSLV attempted to heave the eighth satellite in the Indian Regional Satellite System — IRNSS 1H — into an orbit stretching more than 12,800 miles (20,650 kilometers) above Earth.
But the rocket carried the extra weight of its clamshell-like nose cone all the way to orbit. Burdened with the extra load, the PSLV’s fourth stage reached an orbit with a maximum altitude of 4,072 miles (6,554 kilometers).
A launch commentator on ISRO’s live webcast of the flight noted a “variation in the performance” of the rocket as the PSLV’s twin-engine fourth stage began firing. The upper stage continued its burn, and the launch commentator announced the command to separate the IRNSS 1H satellite
ISRO’s range operations director confirmed the payload fairing, or heat shield, remained attached to the rocket.
“During the flight, the heat shield has not separated,” the range operations director said shortly after IRNSS 1H was supposed to deploy from the rocket. “Further analysis will be carried out subsequently.”
A video monitor inside the PSLV launch control center appeared to show the IRNSS 1H satellite trapped inside the fairing well after the shroud was supposed to jettison.
The payload fairing was programmed to release at T+plus 3 minutes, 23 seconds, once the PSLV soared above the dense lower layers of the atmosphere. The structure shields the satellite from weather during the final launch countdown, then protects the payload from aerodynamic forces as the rocket climbs into space.
Thursday’s mishap was the first incident on a PSLV launch since 1997, when a rocket delivered an Earth observation satellite to a lower-than-planned — but usable — polar orbit. It was the first total PSLV launch failure since the rocket’s inaugural flight in 1993, a span of 39 successful and partially successful missions in a row.
Source:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/31/pslv-c39/
Video from an on-board camera appeared to show the IRNSS 1H navigation craft still cocooned inside the fairing long after it was supposed to separate.
The chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, A.S. Kiran Kumar, declared the launch a failure in a press conference after the flight, according to Indian news reports.
An Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle blasted off at 1330 GMT (9:30 a.m. EDT) from the Satish Dhawan Space Center on India’s east coast with the eighth satellite for the country’s regional navigation network. The payload was supposed to replace a spacecraft launched four years ago with faulty payload components.
Liftoff occurred at 7 p.m. Indian Standard Time.
The 144-foot-tall (44-meter) PSLV attempted to heave the eighth satellite in the Indian Regional Satellite System — IRNSS 1H — into an orbit stretching more than 12,800 miles (20,650 kilometers) above Earth.
But the rocket carried the extra weight of its clamshell-like nose cone all the way to orbit. Burdened with the extra load, the PSLV’s fourth stage reached an orbit with a maximum altitude of 4,072 miles (6,554 kilometers).
A launch commentator on ISRO’s live webcast of the flight noted a “variation in the performance” of the rocket as the PSLV’s twin-engine fourth stage began firing. The upper stage continued its burn, and the launch commentator announced the command to separate the IRNSS 1H satellite
ISRO’s range operations director confirmed the payload fairing, or heat shield, remained attached to the rocket.
“During the flight, the heat shield has not separated,” the range operations director said shortly after IRNSS 1H was supposed to deploy from the rocket. “Further analysis will be carried out subsequently.”
A video monitor inside the PSLV launch control center appeared to show the IRNSS 1H satellite trapped inside the fairing well after the shroud was supposed to jettison.
The payload fairing was programmed to release at T+plus 3 minutes, 23 seconds, once the PSLV soared above the dense lower layers of the atmosphere. The structure shields the satellite from weather during the final launch countdown, then protects the payload from aerodynamic forces as the rocket climbs into space.
Thursday’s mishap was the first incident on a PSLV launch since 1997, when a rocket delivered an Earth observation satellite to a lower-than-planned — but usable — polar orbit. It was the first total PSLV launch failure since the rocket’s inaugural flight in 1993, a span of 39 successful and partially successful missions in a row.
Source:
https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/31/pslv-c39/
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