Latest news with #EOS-09
The Hindu
06-06-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Private lunar lander from Japan crashes into moon in failed mission
A private lunar lander from Japan crashed while attempting a touchdown Friday (June 6, 2025), the latest casualty in the commercial rush to the moon. The Tokyo-based company ispace declared the mission a failure several hours after communication was lost with the lander. Flight controllers scrambled to gain contact, but were met with only silence and said they were concluding the mission. Also Read | PSLV-C61/EOS-09 mission could not be accomplished: ISRO Communications ceased less than two minutes before the spacecraft's scheduled landing on the moon with a mini rover. Until then, the descent from lunar orbit seemed to be going well. CEO and founder Takeshi Hakamada apologized to everyone who contributed to the mission, the second lunar strikeout for ispace. Two years ago, the company's first moonshot ended in a crash landing, giving rise to the name 'Resilience' for its successor lander. Resilience carried a rover with a shovel to gather lunar dirt as well as a Swedish artist's toy-size red house for placement on the moon's dusty surface. Company officials said it was too soon to know whether the same problem doomed both missions. 'This is the second time that we were not able to land. So we really have to take it very seriously," Mr. Hakamada told reporters. He stressed that the company would press ahead with more lunar missions. A preliminary analysis indicates the laser system for measuring the altitude did not work as planned, and the lander descended too fast, officials said. "Based on these circumstances, it is currently assumed that the lander likely performed a hard landing on the lunar surface,' the company said in a written statement. Long the province of governments, the moon became a target of private outfits in 2019, with more flops than wins along the way. Launched in January from Florida on a long, roundabout journey, Resilience entered lunar orbit last month. It shared a SpaceX ride with Firefly Aerospace's Blue Ghost, which reached the moon faster and became the first private entity to successfully land there in March. Another U.S. company, Intuitive Machines, arrived at the moon a few days after Firefly. But the tall, spindly lander face-planted in a crater near the moon's south pole and was declared dead within hours. Resilience was targeting the top of the moon, a less treacherous place than the shadowy bottom. The ispace team chose a flat area with few boulders in Mare Frigoris or Sea of Cold, a long and narrow region full of craters and ancient lava flows that stretches across the near side's northern tier. Plans had called for the 7.5-foot (2.3-meter) Resilience to beam back pictures within hours and for the lander to lower the piggybacking rover onto the lunar surface this weekend. Made of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic with four wheels, ispace's European-built rover — named Tenacious — sported a high-definition camera to scout out the area and a shovel to scoop up some lunar dirt for NASA. The rover, weighing just 11 pounds (5 kilograms), was going to stick close to the lander, going in circles at a speed of less than one inch (a couple centimeters) per second. It was capable of venturing up to two-thirds of a mile (1 kilometer) from the lander and should be operational throughout the two-week mission, the period of daylight. Besides science and tech experiments, there was an artistic touch. The rover held a tiny, Swedish-style red cottage with white trim and a green door, dubbed the Moonhouse by creator Mikael Genberg, for placement on the lunar surface. Minutes before the attempted landing, Hakamada assured everyone that ispace had learned from its first failed mission. 'Engineers did everything they possibly could' to ensure success this time, he said. He considered the latest moonshot 'merely a steppingstone' to its bigger lander launching by 2027 with NASA involvement. Ispace, like other businesses, does not have 'infinite funds' and cannot afford repeated failures, Jeremy Fix, chief engineer for ispace's U.S. subsidiary, said at a conference last month. While not divulging the cost of the current mission, company officials said it's less than the first one which exceeded $100 million. Two other U.S. companies are aiming for moon landings by year's end: Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin and Astrobotic Technology. Astrobotic's first lunar lander missed the moon altogether in 2024 and came crashing back through Earth's atmosphere. For decades, governments competed to get to the moon. Only five countries have pulled off successful robotic lunar landings: Russia, the U.S., China, India and Japan. Of those, only the U.S. has landed people on the moon: 12 NASA astronauts from 1969 through 1972. NASA expects to send four astronauts around the moon next year. That would be followed a year or more later by the first lunar landing by a crew in more than a half-century, with SpaceX's Starship providing the lift from lunar orbit all the way down to the surface. China also has moon landing plans for its own astronauts by 2030.
India Today
26-05-2025
- Science
- India Today
Isro ground PSLV fleet after launch disaster, continues to prep for Nisar launch
Days after the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle failed moments after launch, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) has temporarily grounded its trusted PSLV development comes following the failure of the PSLV-C61 mission on May 18, which was carrying the advanced EOS-09 earth observation decision comes as a high-level committee investigates the anomaly that led to the rocket's third-stage malfunction, resulting in the loss of the satellite and rocket over the Indian The PSLV, renowned for its 94% success rate with only four failures in 64 missions, encountered a rare setback when the third stage of PSLV-C61 suffered a sudden drop in chamber pressure, causing a loss of the first two stages performing reliably, the third stage's solid-fuel motor did not generate sufficient thrust, and the mission was aborted less than seven minutes after suspect a rupture in the fibre casing of the third-stage motor as a possible cause, with hot gases from the burning fuel potentially entering sensitive EOS-09 satellite, equipped with a sophisticated Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) capable of all-weather, day-and-night imaging, was intended to support environmental monitoring, disaster response, and national security loss is a significant operational setback for Isro, but officials remain confident in a swift the PSLV grounding, Isro's other launch vehicles remain for the high-profile Nasa-Isro Synthetic Aperture Radar (Nisar) mission, scheduled for launch in June 2025 aboard a GSLV rocket, are proceeding as Nisar mission, a $1.5 billion collaboration with Nasa, will deploy one of the world's most advanced radar imaging satellites to monitor Earth's changing systems and natural and external expert committees are now scrutinising telemetry and system diagnostics from the failed PSLV mission, with a detailed report expected by officials stress that the temporary grounding of PSLV is a standard safety measure and will not impact the schedule of other critical missions, including Nisar and the upcoming Gaganyaan human spaceflight Isro investigates the rare PSLV failure, its focus remains on ensuring flawless operations for future launches, particularly with ambitious crewed and international missions on the Watch
New Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Science
- New Indian Express
Crewed missions ahead, Isro needs zero-flaw operations
The May 18 failure of India's workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket to deliver sophisticated earth observation satellite EOS-09 to its intended orbit in space is a hard knock for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The four-stage PSLV-C61 launcher lifted off with the EOS-09 satellite sharp at 5.59 am from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota. The first two stages performed reliably, but the problem began after the third stage fired. The PSLV-C61 lost thrust, and the remaining third and the fourth stage (latter nestling EOS-09) crashed into the sea. ISRO Chairman V Narayanan suspects it happened due to a fall in pressure in the PSLV-C61's third-stage motor chamber carrying Hydroxyl-terminated Polybutadiene as the solid propellant. Rocket propulsion experts understand that pressure in a rocket motor's combustion chamber can fall due to changes in the burning rate and surface area of the propellant or from issues within the nozzle, whether erosion or burning surface area. This caused a loss of thrust, preventing the PSLV-C61 from reaching the intended altitude of 534 km to release EOS-09 in its orbit and crashing about five minutes after launch.
India Gazette
21-05-2025
- Science
- India Gazette
Preparing for India's first human spaceflight by 2027: ISRO chief after PSLV-C61 mission setback
Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], May 21 (ANI): Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) Chairman, V Narayanan said on Wednesday that despite the setback faced in the PSLV-C61/EOS-09 mission, 2025 is still a landmark year for the organisation with Chandrayaan-4, Chandrayaan-5 and three unscrewed missions planned along with preparations underway for the country's first human spaceflight by 2027, known as the 'Gaganyaan' programme. According to the ISRO chief, the PSLV-C61 mission faced a setback during the third stage of the launch due to a drop in the chamber pressure, which subsequently impacted the fourth stage. He said that a national-level committee has been made to investigate the cause of the pressure drop. 'The PSLV-c61 mission faced a setback during the third stage due to a drop in chamber pressure, which impacted the fourth stage performance and led to mission loss. A national-level committee is investigating the cause,' Narayanan told ANI. However, he highlighted the past achievements of the organisation and the future missions planned, showing confidence in India's space programme moving closer to ensuring food, water, and power security. '2025 still remains a landmark year with Chandrayaan-4, Chandrayaan-5, and three uncrewed missions lined up. India's space programme is moving steadily towards ensuring food, water, and power security while preparing for the country's first human spaceflight by 2027,' the ISRO chief said. The ISRO chief is in Bhubaneswar to visit the Central Toolroom and Training Centre (CTTC). In a rare setback, ISRO faced a mission failure on May 18 as its 101st launch -- EOS-09 aboard the PSLV-C61 -- could not be completed due to technical problems in the third stage of the launch vehicle. The launch began at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, with the first and second stages of the PSLV performing normally. ISRO Chairman V Narayanan said that the trouble arose during the functioning of the third stage and the mission could not be accomplished. The third stage of the launch consists of a solid rocket motor which provides the upper stage with a high thrust after the atmospheric phase of the launch. India's Chandrayaan-4 mission, with the tentative launch date in 2027-28 aims to collect lunar samples and return them to earth. (ANI)
19-05-2025
- Science
Indian space agency's satellite mission fails over technical issue in launch vehicle
NEW DELHI -- The Indian space agency's mission to launch into orbit a new Earth observation satellite failed after the launch vehicle encountered a technical issue during the third stage of flight, officials said Sunday. The EOS-09 Earth observation satellite took off on board the PSLV-C61 launch vehicle from the Sriharikota space center in southern India on Sunday morning. 'During the third stage ... there was a fall in the chamber pressure of the motor case, and the mission could not be accomplished,' said V. Narayanan, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation. Active in space research since the 1960s, India has launched satellites for itself and other countries, and successfully put one in orbit around Mars in 2014. After a failed attempt to land on the moon in 2019, India became the first country to land a spacecraft near the moon's south pole in 2023 in a historic voyage to uncharted territory that scientists believe could hold reserves of frozen water. The mission was dubbed as a technological triumph for the world's most populous nation.
