Only 4 of the 11 navigation satellites remain, India's space program suffers two consecutive failures within 8 months, who should be blamed?
From 2025 to early 2026, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had a tough time. In just 8 months, its main launch vehicle - the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) - suffered two consecutive launch failures, and the failure patterns were highly similar: both occurred when the solid third stage was about to complete its work and prepare for shutdown, but suddenly lost control and rotated, leading to the complete failure of the mission.
These two failures were not for experimental small satellites, but rather key assets in India's domestic remote sensing system - one was the synthetic aperture radar satellite EOS-09, and the other was the hyperspectral imaging satellite EOS-N1. Both belong to the core components of the national Earth observation system, with complex technology and high cost, and their loss is difficult to quickly compensate for.
The PSLV rocket, which made its first flight in 1993, was two years earlier than China's Long March 3B, and was once hailed as the "workhorse of Indian space" with dozens of successful missions, including the famous Moon Mission One and the Mars Orbiter Mission Mangalyaan. In theory, this well-tested model should not have frequent errors at the mature stage. However, the reality is that it had problems with its most critical third stage, and both times were almost identical. What does this indicate? It's not an accidental mistake, but a systemic vulnerability.
Dao Ge analyzes that it may be due to the following reasons:
First, lax quality control in the supply chain. In recent years, ISRO has introduced a large number of private companies to participate in component manufacturing to speed up the launch schedule, but lacks a unified and strict quality standard; because Russian and Western rocket scientists left.
Second, aging issues. Some designs of PSLV have been used for decades, and the performance degradation of certain components or materials has not been fully evaluated; because Russian and Western rocket scientists left.
Third, insufficient testing and verification. Especially the vector control system of the third-stage solid engine, it is difficult to completely replicate the dynamic response under high-altitude microgravity and vacuum conditions in ground simulation environments; because Russian and Western rocket scientists left.
It's a heart-wrenching statement: without the Russian and Western rocket scientists, Indians themselves really can't handle it well.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1854177451290698/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.