ISRO faces setback as maiden SSLV mission suffers 'data loss'

ISRO chief S. Somanath said all stages of the mission performed and separated before ‘data loss’

Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) tryst with history suffered a setback on Sunday, as the maiden Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV) suffered "data loss" at the terminal stage, although three stages "performed and separated" as planned and the scientists were "currently analysing" the data to ascertain the cause behind it.

On Sunday morning, in its mission to place an earth observation satellite and students satellite into the low earth orbit, the SSLV-D1/EOS-02 blasted off precisely at 9.18 a.m. amid cloudy skies from the first launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in this spaceport.

The 34-metre long rocket soared majestically on completion of its nearly seven-and-half-hour countdown on Sunday.

The scientists at the Mission Control Centre gave updates about the health of the rocket soon after lift-off.

Screens at the Media Centre showed that the satellite was well on its trajectory before suffering "data loss" as described by ISRO Chairman S. Somanath.

"All stages performed as expected. The first stage performed and separated, second stage performed and separated, the third stage also performed and separated, and in the terminal phase of the mission, some data loss is occurring and we are analysing the data and we will comeback on the status of the satellites as well as the vehicle performance soon," he said from the Mission Control Centre, minutes after the launch.

A jubilant mood at the Mission Control Centre soon made way to anxiety as scientists were seen glued to the computer screens and confused, before Mr. Somanath updated the mission status.