New Delhi: The Indian Space Research Organisation’s failure to place 16 satellites in their intended orbit Monday was a setback to its otherwise impeccable track record of successfully completing 84 per cent of the launches it has undertaken since the 1979. But the current failure is concerning. Between January 2025 and January 2026, the space agency achieved a success rate of only 50 per cent, failing in three of the six missions launched. Questions are now being raised about the transparency of the premier space agency in light of the latest failure.
Incidentally, the three failed missions carried satellites of strategic importance.
The failures include the NVS-02 navigation satellite launched on 29 January 2025, the EOS-09 mission launched on 18 May 2025, and finally, the EOS-N1 mission launched on 12 January 2026.
It is, however, important to note that the ISRO has categorised its NVS-02 mission as a “partial failure”, even though the launch vehicle could not place the satellite, which was part of India’s Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) navigation system, in its intended geostationary orbit (GEO). The space agency confirmed that the satellite is only partially operational.
The recent failures have prompted space experts and enthusiasts to call for better quality control and accountability from the space agency.
“No doubt, ISRO is a great organisation. But if there are back-to-back failures in launching key military-grade satellites, then questions will be raised. Respect does not mean questions cannot be raised for successive failures. Accountability is a must,” said Pathikrit Payne, senior research fellow at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation, in a post on X.
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Launch record
Since its formation in 1969, ISRO has conducted 105 launches. On 10 August 1979, ISRO conducted its first experimental orbital launch attempt on board its Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV) 3 rocket, carrying Rohini Technology payload. The mission, however, was only partially successful.
But the space agency has come a long way.
From conducting an average of three to four launches every four to five years, ISRO upped its game to an average of five launches every year in the last five years.
In 2024, the space agency conducted five launches, with a 100 per cent success rate, starting with the X-ray Polarimeter Satellite (XpoSat) mission launched on 1 January. It carried India’s first dedicated polarimetry mission to study various dynamics of bright astronomical X-ray sources in extreme conditions.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) C58 carried the two payloads to a low Earth orbit, including the POLIX (Polarimeter Instrument in X-rays), designed to measure polarimetric parameters in the medium X-ray energy range. The mission also carried the XSPECT (X-ray Spectroscopy and Timing) payload, which was designed to provide spectroscopic information in the 0.8-15 keV energy range.
In 2024, ISRO also successfully launched the INSAT-3DS, EOS-08 and Proba-3 missions.
While 2024 was a good year for India’s space launches, its best performance yet was in 2023. ISRO lined up a string of seven successful launches, including big-ticket missions like Chandrayaan-3 on 14 July 2023 and Aditya-L1 on 2 September 2023.
In 2022, ISRO carried out five launches, out of which only one launch failed — the maiden flight of the Small Satellite Launch Vehicle (SSLV).
Also Read: With only 5 launches in 2025. What’s behind ISRO’s project delays
Lack of transparency and focus on big missions
The latest string of failures by ISRO might be a setback to its ambitions of becoming a reliable global launch partner. The consecutive failure of the PSLV missions — India’s trusted workhorse, which has had an impressive success rate of over 90 per cent — is likely to impact its reputation while raising questions on its quality assurance.
An industry expert ThePrint spoke to on the condition of anonymity, said that both PSLV failures in the last few months occurred at the same stage. Despite calling for a detailed assessment by a Failure Analysis Committee (FAC), its findings were not made public even in the last mission—PSLV-C61 (EOS-09).
“If the same issue has occurred again, then there seems to be a recurrent issue. Was it a manufacturing problem or a quality issue? We do not know. But if the FAC report had found something, then why wasn’t it fixed?” the expert said, adding that better transparency around space missions would ensure better accountability in these capital-intensive missions.
Some space policy experts also said that in recent years, ISRO has shifted its focus from everyday launches to big missions. With India’s space roadmap pinning the agency to a tight deadline with missions like Gaganyaan by 2027, the Bharatiya Antariksh Station (BAS) by 2035, and the first crewed lunar mission by 2040, the task of commercial launches has been outsourced.
“Back-to-back failures of the ISRO workhorse PSLV should be a cause of worry for the space agency. The loss of strategic and commercial satellites is equally worrying for agencies and customers,” Dinesh C Sharma, author of Space: The India Story, said in a post on X.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)