Jonathan McDowell@planet4589·I estimate that PSLV-C62 reached a suborbital trajectory of around -3800 x 390 km x 98 deg and fell in the Indian Ocean very roughly near 75E 18S.
The KID Survived - Mission Update #1Following nominal takeoff at 04:48 UTC, an anomaly occurred during the third stage boost of PSLV-C62. During third stage burn, the launch vehicle lost thrust and deviated from the nominal trajectory.Still, despite events, we confirmed today that KID survived and transmitted valuable data.Our team is analyzing and investigating the trajectory information. We'll provide a detailed update in the coming days.
The KID Survived - Mission Update #2We've spent the last 24 hours reviewing all data received during the PSLV-C62 mission to understand what happened. Here's what we can confirm:The reentry was harder than planned, but KID heldKID fell back to Earth with PSLV Stage 4. The capsule endured a way steeper angle than the nominal mission was foreseeing (around -20º instead of -5º). It seems we entered in the atmosphere still coupled to the rocket upper stage. Due to atmospheric heating the separation ring, designed by UARX Space, reached the conditions to trigger release. This happened at around Mach 20, from which KID crossed peak G-load until 28g, almost twice twice the nominal scenario. The first data batch was received at around 05:06 UTC, and most likely is relative to a few seconds before. Then, we received 190 seconds of system telemetryThis data confirms KID's core systems remained operational through extreme conditions. However, customer payload data was scheduled for later transmission. KID didn't have enough time to send it before ocean impact.Internal temperatures reading indicate that payloads were kept between 15ºC and 30ºC approx during the whole reentry. Based on preliminary trajectory analysis, the capsule splashed down in a remote area of the southern Indian Ocean, far from any human presence.What this meansKID was tested beyond its design envelope, and it worked. Separation, power-on, and data transmission, even after reentry, all performed well despite degraded conditions. Based on initial analysis it seems that we achieved 4 out of 5 launch milestones, albeit through an off-nominal profile. The failure to deliver customer’s data prevents us from declaring the mission a success. The results we have showed us that we've been able to design, develop and qualify a vehicle that worked in harsh return conditions, allowing us to get useful information from the flight.
India's Workhorse Rocket FAILS Again | 2 Consecutive Lost Flights - What Went Wrong? - January 2026QuoteJan 13, 2026ISRO's trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has suffered its second consecutive failure in just eight months, with the PSLV-C62 mission on January 12, 2026, ending in disaster due to a third-stage anomaly that caused roll rate disturbances and loss of attitude control. Following the similar PSLV-C61 setback in May 2025 involving a chamber pressure drop, this back-to-back incident resulted in the loss of 16 satellites—including DRDO's strategic EOS-N1 (Anvesha) Earth observation payload and international rideshares from Brazil, Nepal, Spain, the UK, and more—raising serious questions about potential manufacturing defects, nozzle issues, transparency in failure investigations, and the future reliability of India's workhorse rocket ahead of ambitious goals like Gaganyaan human spaceflight. Dive into the technical details, timeline of events, and what this means for ISRO's commercial launch ambitions in this in-depth analysis.🤵 Hosted by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🖊️ Written by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🎥 Video from Max Evans, Jack Beyer, ISRO, Press Information Bureau, NASA, Kevin Gill, Footy2000.✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).
Jan 13, 2026ISRO's trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has suffered its second consecutive failure in just eight months, with the PSLV-C62 mission on January 12, 2026, ending in disaster due to a third-stage anomaly that caused roll rate disturbances and loss of attitude control. Following the similar PSLV-C61 setback in May 2025 involving a chamber pressure drop, this back-to-back incident resulted in the loss of 16 satellites—including DRDO's strategic EOS-N1 (Anvesha) Earth observation payload and international rideshares from Brazil, Nepal, Spain, the UK, and more—raising serious questions about potential manufacturing defects, nozzle issues, transparency in failure investigations, and the future reliability of India's workhorse rocket ahead of ambitious goals like Gaganyaan human spaceflight. Dive into the technical details, timeline of events, and what this means for ISRO's commercial launch ambitions in this in-depth analysis.🤵 Hosted by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🖊️ Written by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🎥 Video from Max Evans, Jack Beyer, ISRO, Press Information Bureau, NASA, Kevin Gill, Footy2000.✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).
Now an NSF Breaking News VideoQuote from: catdlr on 01/14/2026 01:25 amIndia's Workhorse Rocket FAILS Again | 2 Consecutive Lost Flights - What Went Wrong? - January 2026QuoteJan 13, 2026ISRO's trusted Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has suffered its second consecutive failure in just eight months, with the PSLV-C62 mission on January 12, 2026, ending in disaster due to a third-stage anomaly that caused roll rate disturbances and loss of attitude control. Following the similar PSLV-C61 setback in May 2025 involving a chamber pressure drop, this back-to-back incident resulted in the loss of 16 satellites—including DRDO's strategic EOS-N1 (Anvesha) Earth observation payload and international rideshares from Brazil, Nepal, Spain, the UK, and more—raising serious questions about potential manufacturing defects, nozzle issues, transparency in failure investigations, and the future reliability of India's workhorse rocket ahead of ambitious goals like Gaganyaan human spaceflight. Dive into the technical details, timeline of events, and what this means for ISRO's commercial launch ambitions in this in-depth analysis.🤵 Hosted by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🖊️ Written by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).🎥 Video from Max Evans, Jack Beyer, ISRO, Press Information Bureau, NASA, Kevin Gill, Footy2000.✂️ Edited by Ryan Caton (@DPodDolphinPro).💼 Produced by Kevin Michael Reed (@kmreed).
Orbital Paradigm@OrbitalParadigm·The KID survived.Built in 1 year. <10 engineers. <€1M budget.Despite an off-nominal profile, KID survived the impossible and hit 4/5 technological milestones.Here is the final immediate post-mission update 🧵👇
The KID Survived - Final Mission UpdateKID was built in 1 year, less than 10 engineers, less than €1M budget. And in the end KID survived the impossible.This achievement belongs to the team: they put a huge effort and ingenuity in finding effective and viable technical solutions and meeting all the deadlines to reach this result. They did an outstanding job building KID, and what they did worked well. In the last week the team worked on the mission data, analyzing the available information from the KID flight to understand exactly what happened.Thanks to their deep-dive analysis, we confirmed that we reached 4 out of 5 technological milestones, despite the off-nominal profile. The investigation is still ongoing, but we did relevant progress in confirming that the information we have is very valuable for our future steps. ➡️ We flew a sample of our own reusable ceramic thermal protection material destined for our next-gen spacecraft. Data collected confirms it successfully maintained temperatures within the expected range: toasty 300-350ºC outside, 85ºC inside under the thermal protection tile, performing as designed.➡️ KID was supposed to encounter 14g. Initial navigation readings showed 28g recorded. We have now realized that our sensors saturated, maxing out at 30g. By cross-referencing navigation and sensor data with simulations we now estimate KID actually survived an acceleration of probably more than 35g. That is 2.5x our expectations.➡️ KID separated at Mach >20. The capsule maintained a stable flight attitude through the hypersonic phase, all the way down to supersonic/transonic speeds. This matches exactly what we expected for the mission based on the in-house models we used for design.So, what’s next? Reentry data are comprehensive enough that we do not need to launch a second KID mission. We have what we need. Our focus shifts to the "Learn to Fly" mission next year, which will feature full recovery capabilities. We are raising the bar to achieve controlled reentry flight and recovery operations. Like KID, "Learn to Fly" will host commercial customers. Capacities are already nearly sold out, proving that this is a real market searching for reliable solutions.This marks the end of the immediate KID post-mission updates. Once the team has concluded their analysis, we will publish a full analysis report, providing visibility to the whole set of data we received.
