The automatic safety system of the vehicle shut off the launch operations one second before the scheduled lift off at 3.47 pm as one of the four liquid propelled strap-ons failed to provide the necessary thrust. ISRO chairman Dr K Kasturirangan informed the media immediately after the failure that the GSLV-D1 mission stands cancelled for the time being and the scientists were analysing the huge amount of data for identifying the reason for the failure. The next launch date will be announced once the analysis is complete.

Explaining the sequence of the launch, Dr Kasturirangan said all preparations for the launch went off as planned and the automatic launch sequence was taken over by the computers 10 minutes before the lift-off.

Various sequences prior to the ignition went on smoothly and the computer ordered the ignition of the liquid propelled strap-ons 4.6 seconds before lift-off. But after three seconds of the ignition of the strap-ons, the onboard safety system ordered the shut down of the lift-off.

ISRO chairman explained that only preliminary analysis had been done and expressed his inability to get into the details on why the rocket failed. He, however, pointed out that the foolproof working of the automatic safety system ensured that the stages one, two and three of the GSLV were not ignited. A visibly shaken Dr Kasturirangan acknowledged that it was "certainly a setback" but assured that the ISRO scientists will do everything to set the anomaly right.

GSLV thus joined its predecessors SLV, ASLV and PSLV, which failed in their first developmental flight.