The Hindu Business Line : GSLV crashes into Bay

The satellite, with 12 Ku-band transponders, also had commercial bookings from broadcasters such as Sun TV for DTH, Sri Lanka's Rupavahini, and NICNET, apart from the regular payload for Doordarshan. A few more broadcasters were expecting to shift to it.

ISRO had been projecting the GSLV as a cheaper and reliable service in the small but tough $2-billion space transportation market.

The market is dominated by Europe's Arianespace, US players Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and to a lesser extent by China and Japan.

At Sriharikota, the ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, said that the malfunction was in the first stage of the rocket.

Considering the complexities and challenges of a launch, this was a minor setback and would not affect the country's space programme itself, he said, adding that the scientists would analyse the mistakes and learn from them.

For over three decades, the space organisation has been planning to make a home launch of its indigenously built Insat; it has so far been flown by Arianespace for $200-250 million apiece.

An Indian launch is said to come 30 per cent cheaper. ISRO officials had earlier put the cost at Rs 150 crore for the launcher and Rs 100 crore for the satellite.

The rocket careened from its path within seconds of what seemed like a normal launch and crashed into the Bay of Bengal. The flight, scheduled for 4.38 p.m. from Sriharikota launchpad, 80 km north of Chennai, was put off for almost an hour.

After two successes, the GSLV was declared operational in September 2004, when it used to put the 1.6-tonne Edusat in orbit.

This was the technology that the US had thwarted ISRO from acquiring from the erstwhile USSR in the 90s.

The launch vehicle programme is almost fully indigenised and the crucial upper cryogenic engine made by ISRO is also getting ready for trial next year.

If all had gone well, ISRO would have lined up its 12th consecutive launch, including for eight PSLVs that are now its workhorses and have made four commercial launches of small, piggyback satellites.

It would have also meant some milestones: Insat-4C weighing 2.16 tonnes would have been the heaviest liftoff and the first operational Insat to fly from home soil.

The second launchpad (SLP), commissioned only in May last year, was being used for the first time for a GSLV that can place a satellite in a 36,000 km medium-earth orbit. The SLP, built at a cost of Rs 400 crore, has been tried last October for a PSLV.

The crash comes a day after the DRDO's Agni III missile test failed in Orissa.

In Bangalore, Dr U.R. Rao, former ISRO Chairman who presided over some of the early launch vehicle activities, termed the crash "a disappointment rather than a setback. The GSLV is already operational. It was right on its way. Over the next few days, ISRO will pore over the data and analyse every millisecond of the launch."

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