The navigation satellite NVS-02 will dock on January 29, 2025 aboard the launch vehicle GSLV-F15 from the Satish Dhawan Space Center (SDSC) at Sriharikota. Photo credit: ANI
After a delay of almost a year, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) released the report of the committee formed to analyze why the NVS-02 satellite, which was launched aboard the GSLV rocket on January 29 last year, could not be placed in the intended orbit.
The summit committee, as it’s called, concluded that the main reason for what happened was that the signal to activate a key valve in the engine’s oxidizer never reached it. This valve is critical for starting the engine to raise the spacecraft’s orbit.
The committee said the most likely explanation was that at least one connection in the electrical connector—in both the primary and backup lines—became loose or failed, preventing the signal from passing through.
NVS-02, the second spacecraft in the NVS series, was successfully placed into an “elliptical transfer” orbit on 29 January 2025 at 00:53 UT, but its subsequent transfer to a circular orbit was unsuccessful. It was also a special occasion, the 100th launch from the Sriharikota launch pad. The spacecraft was separated from the launch vehicle (GSLVF15), after which a series of autonomous activities were performed on the satellite, including solar panel deployment and orientation stabilization for power generation.
NVS-02 was to be the second satellite in the NVS series and part of India’s Navigation with the Indian Constellation (NavIC).
Also read | ISRO successfully launches NVS-02 satellite; creates history with 100th start from Sriharikota
‘Performed satisfactorily’
An ISRO statement said the committee gave a set of recommendations to “enhance” the redundancy and reliability of pyrosystem operations for future missions. These were “successfully implemented in the CMS-03 spacecraft launched on 2 November 2025 LVM-3 M5 and the pyrosystems satisfactorily placed the satellite into the intended orbit”.
CMS-03, or GSAT-7R, is an indigenously designed and developed satellite weighing around 4,400 kg – India’s heaviest communications satellite – and is critical to the Navy’s space communications and maritime domain awareness.
The Hindu reported this week that a committee comprising K. Vijayraghavan, former chief scientific advisor, and S. Somanath, former chairman, ISRO, will look into the “systemic issues” underlying the successive failures of ISRO’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
Published – 25 Feb 2026 22:44 IST
