India's space programme has entered an uncomfortable phase where failure is no longer an exception but a recurring feature. The crash of PSLV-C62 in January 2026, which destroyed the EOS-N1 (Anvesha) Earth-observation satellite and 15 co-passenger spacecraft minutes after lift-off from Sriharikota, was not simply another technical mishap in an inherently risky domain. It was the fifth failure of the ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) mission since 2021, the second involving the PSLV within eight months, and the third major setback in a single year. At that point, the question is no longer whether rockets fail; it is why they are failing so often, and at what cost.

For decades, ISRO's credibility rested occasional ambition, consistent reliability. That balance has broken down. Between 1993 and 2017, PSLV — the backbone of India's launch capability — failed only twice. Since 2021, however, ISRO has recorded five failed or partially failed orbital missions across three launch vehicles. Three of those failures occurred between January 2025 and January 2026 alone. This clustering is unprecedented in ISRO's operational history and points to a systemic problem rather than random bad luck.

The January 2026 failure of PSLV-C62 was particularly damaging because of what it carried. EOS-N1 (Anvesha) was an Earth-observation satellite meant for high-resolution imaging. Such satellites are used for border monitoring, terrain analysis, disaster response, infrastructure mapping and strategic surveillance. In practical terms, they help governments see what is happening on the ground in near real time. Losing one is not merely a........

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