Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched the country’s heaviest rocket – Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III) – along with a communications satellite GSAT-19 at 5.28 pm on Monday, June 5th 2017.
The rocket, weighing 640 tonnes and standing 43.43 metres tall, blasted off from the second launch pad at India’s rocket port at Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 105 km from Chennai.
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-Mk III), the heaviest rocket ever made by India is capable of launching four-tonne satellites in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
The launch is being seen an India's entry into the 'heavy-lift rocket club' that can put four-tonne satellites into space. The U.S., Russia, Europe, China and Japan are already there.
The GSLV-D1 will be powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine. While indigenous cryogenic engines have been carried on earlier flights as well in recent years, they were modelled on cryogenic engines designed by Russia. This cryogenic engine is out- and-out indigenous. That makes it unique.
The D1 mission (for ‘developmental flight’ 1) will be celebrated for being the first official success of the CE20 cryogenic engine.
The D1 mission (for ‘developmental flight’ 1) will be celebrated for being the first official success of the CE20 cryogenic engine.
A deal with a company in the erstwhile Soviet Union fell through in the late 1980s after the US intervened. This would have given Indian scientists access to the KVD-1 cryogenic engines and the know-how to operate them for just Rs 230 crore. As a result, an engine – and the rocket for it – that should have been deployed in the 1990s were not until the 2010s.
The Mk III can launch three-four-tonne-class satellites into the geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), the orbit of interest to communication and navigation satellites. However, since ISRO won’t be able to ready another Mk III again by June 28 to launch the GSAT-17, it will be launched by an Ariane 5 rocket from French Guiana.
After the D1 mission was declared complete, ISRO chief A.S. Kiran Kumar told mediapersons that the upcoming launch schedule would keep them busy, affording little time to linger on today’s success. Beyond ramping up the launch rate itself, his colleagues stated that ISRO will also have to get working on launching six-tonne satellites in the future. One way to this is to build a semi-cryogenic engine, dubbed SC200. The organisation signed a deal with a Ukrainian company in 2006 to obtain the initial blueprints.
In the longer term, ISRO has also initiated projects to help reduce launch costs. Its scientists and engineers have been working towards building a reusable launch vehicle – or RLV – by 2030. It will be able to carry more 10,000 kg to the low-Earth orbit, inject its payloads and return to ground, to be reused. This ability is expected to bring down launch costs by 10 times. Another project to make missions more cost-effective is to engineer a cheaper, but equally reliable, variety of steel to use to make its rockets’ boosters.
As of now, for launching heavier satellites into orbits India pays an upward of ₹400 crore (US$ 60 million) to other space agencies (like Arianespace). Having a launch vehicle of such a capacity will not only help India launch its own heavier fleet of satellites but also make ISRO a major international player in launching satellites for other countries getting revenues for the nation. Such heavier launchers also provide a means for missions based on lander and orbiter system.
This mission success is sweet for the Indian space fraternity as it establishes its superiority in space technology over other developed nations. This success has come at a time when US has scrapped explorations by NASA. US has long denied space technology to India. It has put India in a select class of 5 countries namely USA, Russia, France and China who posses this advanced technology which is considered a frontier in rocket science technology. Each of the two solid boosters will generate 1.1 million pounds of thrust, making them the second-most powerful solid-fueled rocket motors currently in service after the strap-on rockets used by Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher.
Facts on GSKV-Mk III
1. GSKV-Mk III is capable of launching four-tonne satellites in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
2. The rocket is also capable of placing up to eight tonnes in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), enough to carry a manned module.
3. GSLV-Mk III’s first developmental flight, D1, will carry on June 5 the GSAT-19 satellite — developed to help improve telecommunication and broadcasting areas.
4. This is India’s first fully functional rocket to be tested with a cryogenic engine that uses liquid propellants — liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
5. It took about 25 years, 11 flights and over 200 tests on different components of the rocket for it to be fully realised.
6. The 640-tonne rocket, equal to the weight of 200 fully-grown Asian elephants, is the country’s heaviest but shortest rocket with a height of 43 metre.
7. GSLV-Mk III is a three-stage vehicle with two solid motor strap-ons (S200), a liquid propellant core stage (L110) and a cryogenic stage (C-25).
8. ISRO successfully conducted the static test of its largest solid booster S200 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota on January 24, 2010. The successful test of S200, which forms the strap-on stage for the GSLV, makes it the third largest solid booster in the world. The static test of liquid core stage (L110) of GSLV-Mk III launch vehicle was done at ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre test facility as early as March 2010.
9. C-25, the large cryogenic upper stage of the GSLV, is the most difficult component of the launch vehicle to be developed. ISRO successfully ground-tested the indigenously developed C-25 on February 18, 2017.
10. If successful, the GSLV-Mk III — earlier named as Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM-3 — could be India’s vehicle of choice to launch people into space.
This mission success is sweet for the Indian space fraternity as it establishes its superiority in space technology over other developed nations. This success has come at a time when US has scrapped explorations by NASA. US has long denied space technology to India. It has put India in a select class of 5 countries namely USA, Russia, France and China who posses this advanced technology which is considered a frontier in rocket science technology. Each of the two solid boosters will generate 1.1 million pounds of thrust, making them the second-most powerful solid-fueled rocket motors currently in service after the strap-on rockets used by Europe’s Ariane 5 launcher.
Facts on GSKV-Mk III
1. GSKV-Mk III is capable of launching four-tonne satellites in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO).
2. The rocket is also capable of placing up to eight tonnes in a Low Earth Orbit (LEO), enough to carry a manned module.
3. GSLV-Mk III’s first developmental flight, D1, will carry on June 5 the GSAT-19 satellite — developed to help improve telecommunication and broadcasting areas.
4. This is India’s first fully functional rocket to be tested with a cryogenic engine that uses liquid propellants — liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
5. It took about 25 years, 11 flights and over 200 tests on different components of the rocket for it to be fully realised.
6. The 640-tonne rocket, equal to the weight of 200 fully-grown Asian elephants, is the country’s heaviest but shortest rocket with a height of 43 metre.
7. GSLV-Mk III is a three-stage vehicle with two solid motor strap-ons (S200), a liquid propellant core stage (L110) and a cryogenic stage (C-25).
8. ISRO successfully conducted the static test of its largest solid booster S200 at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota on January 24, 2010. The successful test of S200, which forms the strap-on stage for the GSLV, makes it the third largest solid booster in the world. The static test of liquid core stage (L110) of GSLV-Mk III launch vehicle was done at ISRO's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre test facility as early as March 2010.
9. C-25, the large cryogenic upper stage of the GSLV, is the most difficult component of the launch vehicle to be developed. ISRO successfully ground-tested the indigenously developed C-25 on February 18, 2017.
10. If successful, the GSLV-Mk III — earlier named as Launch Vehicle Mark-3 or LVM-3 — could be India’s vehicle of choice to launch people into space.
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