GSLV launch bid fails, may impact Isro’s Gaganyaan
Rocket 3rd stage, satellite lost in space
It was third time unlucky for the advanced earth observation satellite EOS03, when an Isro rocket, India’s largest launch vehicle, failed to place it in the designated orbit in space.
The third stage of the GSLV-F10 (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle), carrying a cryogenic engine fuelled by liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, failed to ignite after a perfect launch early Thursday. The third stage and the satellite are now lost in space.
The EOS-03, earlier named GISAT-1, and its first launch was scrubbed just before liftoff due to a technical glitch on March 5, 2020. The next launch attempt in March 2021 did not take place because of some issues with the battery of the satellite.
On Thursday, the 57.1metre GSLV rocket, weighing 416 tonnes, lifted off from the second launch pad of Sriharikota’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 5.43 am, on time. The 26hour countdown apparently didn’t throw up any problem. The first two stages performed normally.
“The mission couldn’t be accomplished as intended
because of a technical anomaly observed in the cryogenic stage,” said Dr K. Sivan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), after it was declared that the mission objectives had not been achieved.
This was the 14th flight of the GSLV, and the eighth of the Mark 2 version that has an upper stage of an indigenous cryogenic engine. The first Mark 2 rocket failed in 2010 because of a failure of the upper stage engine. The later launches were successful, until Thursday.
Apart from the loss of the mission costing hundreds of crores, Isro will lose huge revenues in the 10-year mission life of the 2,268-kg satellite.
Isro sources said they would probe into the reasons for the failure.
Minister of state for space Jitendra Singh tweeted: “Spoke to chairman #ISRO, Dr K Sivan and discussed in detail. The first two stages went off fine, only after that, there was a difficulty in the cryogenic upper stage ignition. The mission can be rescheduled some time again,” he said.