New ISRO Rocket Suffers Data Loss. What Ex-Chief Said

The SSLV is carrying Earth Observation Satellite -02 and a co-passenger satellite developed by 750 school girls.

Scientists and engineers at the Indian Space Research Organisation, or ISRO, are analysing whether its smallest rocket, SSLV-D1 - which experienced data loss in the final phase - was able to inject the two satellites onboard into a stable orbit. The preliminary finding on the status of the mission should be available in "few hours", Dr Madhavan Nair, ex-ISRO chief, told NDTV, calling the mission a complex.

"Thousands of pages of data will be pouring in. Several specialists will have to go through these data. Apparently, everything went well up to the third stage. There is some deviation in the path in the final phase of the launch and that could be one reason or otherwise there could be some anomaly during separation," he said.

The detailed finding will be available by a week, he said.

"We have to really look for the next orbital cycle and see if other ground stations are able to capture. Then we will be able to reach a conclusion. It will take a few hours before we can get a preliminary finding, but a detailed finding will take a few days or a week," Dr Madhavan Nair, who retired as ISRO chairman in 2009, said.