After months of not launching a rocket, India finally sent one up — and Gordon jinxed it. On August 12 at 00:13 UTC, an Indian GSLV Mk II launched from the Second Launch Pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Center in southern India. Onboard was the EOS-3 satellite.

Initially, the launch looked normal through both the first-stage and second-stage burn. Then the third stage separated and appeared to ignite, but seconds afterward, the live animation began a slow roll and end-to-end pitch. The on-screen graph of the anticipated trajectory versus actual trajectory diverged, with the actual trajectory bending down back towards Earth. ISRO signed off the webcast stating that the “outcome of the mission will be determined soon”. Soon after the webcast was over, a website update and tweet stated that the “third stage ignition did not take place [at all] due to a technical anomaly”.

The satellite onboard the failed launch was EOS-3, also called GISAT-1. As an Earth-observing satellite operating in geostationary orbit, it was intended to provide 50-meter resolution multispectral images of the entire Indian subcontinent every thirty minutes.

This launch was planned for earlier in 2021 but was significantly delayed due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic on India. In order to provide hospitals with oxygen, the ISRO propellant factory pivoted to producing oxygen for patients instead of rockets. ISRO engineers also came up with three different ventilator designs to meet the overwhelming demand caused by the pandemic.

More Information

ISRO press release

GISAT 1 info page (Gunter’s Space Page)

Kerala to get oxygen supplies from ISRO (The Hindu)

Launch video