India's First Private Sector-Built Satellite Launch Unsuccessful

New Delhi:  The maiden launch of India's first private-sector manufactured satellite, the IRNSS-1H, was declared unsuccessful today. 

AS Kiran Kumar, the chief of space agency ISRO, which handled the launch, said the satellite's protective heat shield, which is expected to separate and drop off, failed to do so. 

The 1,425 kg satellite had piggybacked on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was on its 41st mission. Launched from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, the satellite was expected to fill in for one of the seven orbiting satellite of NAViC, which is malfunctioning. NAVIC, which is a system of seven satellites, powers India's homegrown Global Positioning System.

Admitting the failure was a setback for ISRO, Director AS Kiran Kumar said, "Space faring is a risky business and even NASA (the US space agency) and Russia have also faced failures."

The heat shield of a satellite is meant to protect it from the heat generated by the friction against atmosphere during take-off. Once a satellite is placed in the orbit it is expected to separate and fall off. 

The IRNSS-1H, was built by a consortium led by Alpha Design Technologies, a defence equipment supplier from Bengaluru, over eight months. Led by Colonel HS Shankar, a team of 70 scientists from ISRO supervised the operations.

The Rs. 400-crore company had been tasked to make two satellites. The second is expected to be finished by April 2018.

IRNSS stands for Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System. But during the launch of its seventh satellite in April 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had christened the system NAViC, which stands for "Navigation with Indian Constellation".

The launch of IRNSS-1H became necessary after three atomic clocks of one satellite started malfunctioning. Atomic clocks provide navigational data, and they are crucial for a Global positioning system.

Once a satellite, which has a lifespan of a decade, is in space, it is impossible to repair it.

Currently only five nations have a satellite system that offering Global Positioning - the original GPS is owned by the US Air Force and Russia has its parallel system GLONASS.

For more than 40 years, space research agency ISRO had nurtured India's forays into space. The entry of the private sector became necessary as the country carved out a niche for itself in the lucrative space industry. 

Indian-made satellites are regarded as cheap and reliable.

In February, the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle sent 104 satellites in space -- 101 of them belonged to other nations.