26 December,2010 07:22 AM IST | | A Correspondent
In a grave set-back to India, the GSLV-F06 satellite, meant to replace the INSAT-2A communication satellite which had been in orbit for 11 years now, combusted 120 seconds after take-off. The satellite costed about 125 crores and weighed 2310 kgs.u00a0 The debris of the crash fell into the Bay of Bengal. The launch was held at Sriharikota rocket launch centre in Tamil Nadu on Saturday.
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)-F06 is the fifth one in the GSAT series. Out of the five, three of them (GSAT-1, GSAT-2 and GSAT-3) had been launched successfully. GSLV-F06 with a lifespan of 13 years was being set up to help with the telecom and weather services.
Dr K Radhakrishnan said that the satellite was on the predicted trajectory and perfectly functional for the first 50 seconds. However, the satellite soon burst into flames of orange and red. The news was met with great surprise and sorrow in the scientific community.
Suspected reason of the blast is the cryogenic engine imported from Russia. Out of GSLV's seven flights, six of them use the Russian cryogenic engine. Now, three of them have been rendered unsuccessful. The satellite developed by ISRO Satellite Centre is its second failure this year.
Radhakrishnan said that the real reason of the failure was yet to be determined.
