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March 2001
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India's GSLV-D1 launch likely on March 28
Sri Harikota, March 21, India plans to test fly a new homegrown satellite launch rocket on March 28 as part of a program to cut reliance on foreign launch vehicles, Press Trust of India (PTI) reported.
That day will put to test GSLV-D1, first of the Rs 1,400-crore dream mission taken up 10 years ago by the Indian Space Research Organisation. It will also catapult India into the elite club of five nations that have crossed the geo-stationary launch milestone -- the US, EU, Russia, Japan and China.
"GSLV (or geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle) is a quantum jump in the Indian space programme and will achieve for India a new level of capability in launching 2-tonne Insat class of satellites in the geo-stationary transfer orbit (GTO)," the ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, Dr K. Kasturirangan, told the media at the Sriharikota launch centre, 100 km from Chennai, today as a dry launch rehearsal got off.
A launch window of March 28-April 3 has been kept but "We are most likely to make it on the first day at 3.47 p.m., with a 3-4 hour window," Dr Kasturirangan said. The actual countdown will begin on March 26.
The key feature is the Russian cryogenic engine carrying 12 tonnes of liquid fuel. This will fire the last of the three-stage GSLV and eject the satellite into a 36,000-km-high temporary orbit. The first two stages are derived from the present workhorse, the polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV), which can lift up to 1.5 tonnes into a polar 900-km height.
The GSLV carries an experimental payload of 1.54 tonnes, the GSAT-1, which will also try out the digital audio broadcast through All India Radio for the first time in the national programme.
The second test-launch is likely next year. GSLV should become fully operational by 2003 with two consecutive successes, Dr Kasturirangan said.
Work on assembling the booster has been going on since last November. The launch pad was reconfigured after the May 1999 flight of the PSLV-C3. The rocket now stands along the 49 metres tall, misty blue mobile service tower. "We have exhaustively tested out all the systems and are simulating the launch. But we are keeping our fingers crossed for a successful flight," Dr Kasturirangan said.
ISRO's own indigenous cryo engine is still two years away, said the Launch Vehicle Programme Office Director, Mr D. Narayana Moorthi.
Indigenisation makes economic sense as it brings down the launch cost by at least $4,000 a kg for the 2,000-kg class, Dr Kasturirangan said. Insats are currently being launched on procured flights, mostly from the European Arianespace, at around $29,000 a kilo of satellite weight -- totally in the range of Rs 200-250 crore.
GSLV and an indigenous cryo engine will mark the last vital milestone in the Indian space programme.
The cryo engine is one of the four already procured from Russia's Glavkosmos space agency. The Rs 500-crore deal for totally seven cryo engines was struck in 1992-93 but the technology transfer for it was stymied by the US.
(Picture: The GSLV rocket awaits lift-off at the Shar launch pad, Sriharikota. The launch is scheduled for March 28 )
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