New Delhi: Union Science and Technology Minister Jitendra Singh on Monday said ISRO will attempt another launch of its workhorse rocket PSLV in June after two back-to-back failures, ruling out suggestions of sabotage.
Addressing a press conference here, Singh said the reasons for the failure of the launches of PSLV C61 and PSLV-C62 missions in May last year and in January respectively were not the same.
“What happened last time has not happened now,” Singh said, referring to the two successive failures of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV), which boasts of a success rate of over 90 per cent.
Giving an analogy of an electric bulb, the minister said, “Last time a bulb fused, this time there was a tripping outside.”
“As of now, we have not come across any such report,” Singh said to a question on whether he suspected sabotage as the reason for successive failures in strategic missions.
Besides the two PSLV failures, a navigation satellite, NVS-02, launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) last year failed to reach its desired orbit due to the malfunction of valves in the spacecraft’s thrusters.
“Our probable next date which we are very ambitiously targeting is in June, if we move as we have after screening the report of the committee, rectifying everything and certifying ourselves. There is always a last-minute change happening due to many imponderables,” the minister said.
He said that separate internal and external failure assessment committees have been set up to analyse what went wrong in each of the missions.
Singh asserted that all the successive failures have not dented the trust in ISRO and its launch vehicles and foreign customers have not withdrawn their plans to send satellites on ISRO rockets.
“Now, the question of credibility and private investors. We live in an evidence-based era.
“I will tell you, this year we have 18 launches scheduled, of which six are private. None of them has withdrawn its request to launch. Which means, they still trust us,” the minister said.
Singh said ISRO rockets have three big launches from foreign countries – Japan, the US and France – scheduled for next year.
“None of them have shown any apprehension, because those who are in the business of space understand our capacity, our resilience and our confidence better,” the minister said.
