India's ambitious GSLV-D3 launch fails - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

India's ambitious launch of Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D3) failed here on Thursday. The GSLV D3 rocket powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine was blasted off from the Satish Dhavan Space Centre at SHAR Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh coast this evening. But tension gripped scientific community as the rocket stopped emitting signals after few minutes. After the rocket attained a height of 60 kilometers scientists at the control room here said they'd stopped getting signals. Today's launch was the first flight-testing of indigenous cryogenic engine on homespun rocket. For Indian scientists it took nearly two decades to develop an indigenous cryogenic technology after its bid to acquire cryogenic propellant from Russia in 1992 failed in the face of US opposition. The Cryogenic engine was developed by a dedicated team of scientists of the Indian Space Research Orgnaisation's (ISRO) Liquid Propulsions System Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. The ISRO used indigenously developed Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) for the first time in GSLV-D3. The CUS has undergone full flight duration test of 800 seconds successfully. For the first time the ISRO tried electric propulsion system during the launch of GSLV-D3 instead of liquid fuel. The move would enable the agency to extend the life of satellites by a couple of years.