ISRO faces setback as maiden SSLV mission suffers ‘data loss’

Indian Space Research Organisation’s 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 am 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.