Dec 25: India’s ambitious geo-stationary satellite mission received a major setback on Saturday as the satellite launcher, GSLV-F06, had to be detonated after it veered off course about 50 seconds into the launch.
The GSLV-F06 plunged into the Bay of Bengal with its payload, the Rs 125-crore geostationary satellite, GSAT-5P. The rocket was destroyed when it was at an altitude of 8 km and 2.5 km away from Sriharikota.
This is the first time that Isro’s satellite launch mission has failed in the first stage itself. The GSLV is a high-power rocket meant to carry heavy satellites into a geo-synchronous orbit, 36,000 km above from the Earth.
The failure of the GSLV will affect Isro’s planned missions, including the manned mission to moon, and will affect the telecommunications expansion programme.
Saturday’s incident is the third time the GSLV has failed in seven launches, and the second in eight months. The GSLV -F06deviated from the designed path moments after the launch. “When our efforts to reach the control and command signals failed, it was decided to abort the flight in its first stage itself and the destruct command was issued,” a disappointed Isro chief, Dr K. Radhakrishnan, said.
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