Failure in Launching Indian Schoolgirls’ Ham Satellite

The Indian space agency has reported that the much-anticipated maiden voyage of its new Small Satellite Launch Vehicle ended in the failed deployment of two satellites on board. One of them was this student-built satellite through a program known as SpaceKidz India. Because of a sensor error on the launcher, the satellites both entered an elliptical orbit instead of the circular orbit needed, and the ellipsis would have brought the satellite too close to the earth (76 km or 47 miles) at one point in the orbit.