Orbital Paradigm’s KID capsule launched on the PSLV mission. Photo: Orbital Paradigm

Space cargo startup Orbital Paradigm reports its KID capsule was able to transmit flight data from the Indian PSLV rocket failure on Jan. 12. 

India’s Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) suffered a launch failure, losing the 16 satellites onboard. It was the second consecutive failure of the rocket, with the prior failure in May 2025. 

Orbital Paradigm reports that when the rocket stage was reentering the atmosphere, the intense heat caused its KID capsule to separate from the rest of the stage. It activated the capsule’s internal systems and the capsule transmitted data for 3 minutes. The transmission stopped when KID splashed down in the Indian Ocean.

Orbital Paradigm CEO Francesco Cacciatore said in a statement that the livestream was still going when the team realized it had collected flight data, thinking it was a glitch at first. 

“It’s a great comeback! All this confirms that we’re capable of designing and building a system robust enough to perform in harsh reentry conditions with good margins,” Cacciatore said. “From the engineering standpoint this has huge value: we confirmed some relevant key design decisions and models, and we have enough information and lessons learned to de-risk effectively the next mission. It’s a bit bittersweet because we feel there is evidence to dare say that KID would’ve worked wonderfully in nominal conditions.” 

Orbital Paradigm, based in Spain, is accelerating its plans to launch a capsule that will be fully recovered. Development is underway for a new vehicle scheduled to launch in early 2027. 

The Indian Space Research Organization is analyzing data from the flight.