Problems arose during the thermo-vacuum testing of SARAL at the Bangalore ISRO Satellite Centre, where the entire satellite is built, leading to its postponement. 

“We had technical problems in the satellite. Some problems were encountered during the thermo-vacuum testing… They have been solved,” a top ISRO official said in a statement. “The satellite has new payloads and new systems. When new payloads are used, technical issues will be there. We are resolving them,” said another ISRO engineer.

SATAL has two payloads from French space agency CNES—Argos-3 for data collection and Altikameter for measuring the height of the sea surface—and have been integrated into a satellite bus from India.