Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'ISRO should learn from its mistake' that was published in Newsband

ISRO should learn from its mistake

The communication was lost between the ground station and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s latest satellite. ISRO’s mission had aimed to place the communication satellite, GSAT-6A, in space. But the ground station lost track of the satellite on March 31,

It is being conjectured that the failure occurred because of a flaw outside the launch vehicle, the GSLV, perhaps from a short circuit or power glitch within the satellite itself. The last word has not been said on the mission, as ISRO officials continue to try to establish contact with the satellite.

This was a complex scientific feat. ISRO should learn from this experience. The GSLV has had several successes in the past, and this is its 12th flight. The present mission, launched on March 29, was endowed with additional features, such as the high-thrust Vikas engine that gave it the capacity to carry a heavier payload. The mission would be a testing ground for ISRO’s next moon mission.

Space science is exciting not just for the experts, but to many outside the field. Hence the agency should present itself more openly to the world.

Any scientific experiment has no failure. As Addison said when he faced about a hundred failures before inventing electric bulb, by these experiments he learned how the bulb cannot be invented by following those methods which did not yield results.

Let us be very clear here. The launch vehicle, GSLV-F08, has got nothing to do with this unfortunate incident. It was a flawless and accurate launch by GSLV. The communication failure occurred immediately after the second LAM firing, possibly due to power management issues. These have also occurred in ISRO satellites earlier but seem to have been overcome later.