CHENNAI – The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has confirmed that they have lost contact with one of their satellite on Sunday, just after 48 hours it was launched into orbit.
ISRO failed to establish contact with the GSAT-6A communication satellite which was launched on Thursday, amid fanfare and country-wide applause.
According to the space research agency, the incident happened due to unfortunate power system anomaly, and they are trying to re-establish contact with the 2,066kg satellite, which cost 2.7bn rupees ($41.5m) to establish.
“There was a small power failure on the satellite. When that happens, it automatically goes into safe mode. We then lost the link and we are working very hard at it and the link will be established.” NDTV quoted ISRO chief K Sivan as saying.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi had hailed the launch of the communication satellite which was launched from the southern state of Andhra Pradesh India.
https://twitter.com/narendramodi/status/979335199854080005
The satellite was the most powerful communication satellite and was an indigenous model with a six-meter-wide antenna, the biggest used by an ISRO communication satellite so far.
Meant for the S-band communication, the aerial device was designed to improve communications for the armed forces.
The communication fiasco is a devastating blow for ISRO, as this is the second mission failure in the last six months.
In August last year, India’s mission to launch its backup navigation satellite IRNSS-1H on board PSLV-C39 ended up in a failure after a technical fault on the final leg following a perfect launch.
ISRO had then said the heat shield had not separated on the final leg of the launch sequence and, as a result, IRNSS-1H had got stuck in the fourth stage of the rocket.
Ironically, the satellite that lost contact with its station in less than three days was planned for a mission life of about 10 years.
