The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) encountered a setback during its 100th rocket mission after the navigation satellite, NVS-02, launched on Wednesday, experienced a technical issue on Sunday.

ISRO reported on its website that the "orbit raising operations towards positioning the satellite to the designated orbital slot could not be carried out as the valves for admitting the oxidizer to fire the thrusters for orbit raising did not open." The satellite was intended to be placed in a geostationary orbit over India, but due to problems with its liquid engine, the efforts to reach this orbit have either been delayed or may be abandoned entirely.

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Despite the challenges, ISRO confirmed that the satellite's systems remain healthy and it is currently in an elliptical orbit. The agency is exploring alternative strategies to utilise the satellite for navigation while it remains in this orbit.

The GSLV-F15 rocket successfully launched the NVS-02 at 6:23 AM on Wednesday from Sriharikota, marking a milestone for ISRO as its 100th mission. This mission also represents the first under the new Chairman, V Narayanan, who recently took office.

Experts have expressed concerns that the satellite will struggle to perform its intended functions from its elliptical orbit, which ranges from nearly 170 kilometres to approximately 36,577 kilometres from Earth.

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The NVS-02 is a 2,250 kg satellite and the second in the second generation of the Navigation with Indian Constellation (NavIC) system, which serves as India’s regional equivalent to GPS. Developed in response to challenges faced during the 1999 Kargil war, NavIC has faced its share of difficulties.

Since 2013, eleven satellites have been launched as part of this programme, but six have experienced complete or partial failures and now the latest satellite is dealing with significant technical glitches.