Officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation have so far failed to pinpoint the reason that caused a power anomaly and ultimately led to the fall of ISRO’s first commercial satellite, built by the agency in collaboration with EAD-Europe for European operator Eutelsat.

A power system failure in the W2M satellite is an unprecedented problem for ISRO, said senior officials.

ISRO, having enjoyed great success with indigenous satellites, had made its first foray into the big business of satellite exports with the W2M project that fetched the agency $33 million in a contract jointly executed with EADS of Europe.

While a major power system glitch has been reported in ISRO-built satellite systems in the past — in the Insat-2D in 1997 — senior officials in the agency said the problems that are threatening to bring down the W2M “are totally different”.

“Investigations are still on to pinpoint the problem. We have not been able to do that yet,” the official said.

“A serious anomaly has occurred. Ground simulations are underway through the ISRO satellite centre and the Master Control Facility to put the satellite back on track,” Director, Publicity & PR at ISRO, S Satish, said.

ISRO officials refused to comment on the impact of W2M failure on ISRO’s efforts to be a major player in the space business.

Eutelsat reported the failure of the W2M satellite, launched by the European Space Agency on December 20, 2008, through a communiqué on January 28 this year.

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