Maiden SSLV mission: Satellites placed in wrong orbit, no longer usable, ISRO to form committee

Sriharikota: The maiden flight of India's Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV-D1--developmental flight) on Sunday ran into trouble as the both the satellites--earth observation satellite EOS-02 and AzaadiSat--carried by it were placed in an elliptical orbit instead of circular orbit and the satellites were no longer usable.

Hours after the mission took place from the First Launch Pad at 0918 hrs from the SHAR Range, ISRO, in an official update, said SSLV-D1 placed the satellites into 356 km x 76 km elliptical orbit instead of 356 km circular orbit.

"Satellites are no longer usable. Issue is reasonably identified. Failure of a logic to identify a sensor failure and go for a salvage action caused the deviation", ISRO said.

A committee would analyse and recommend. With the implementation of the recommendations, ISRO will come back soon with SSLV-D2, it said. (UNI)