After Mars, Isro confident GSLV won't fail this time

GSLV-D5 to be launched with GSAT-14 communication satellite on January 5

After three continuous failures, GSLV (geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle) is getting ready for another new mission. This time, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), which successfully recently concluded crucial stages of the Mars mission, is confident the launch would not fail.

GSLV-D5 is expected to be launched at the Sriharikota space-port, near Chennai, on January 5 at 4.18 pm. The spacecraft is supposed to carry the GSAT-14 advanced communication satellite into orbit, to be used for telecasting, amomg other things. Its mission life is 12 years.

Speaking to Business Standard, K Radhakrishnan, chairman, Isro, said: "This will be a very major technological milestone."

Isro has completed integration of the second stage and the cryogenic stage of the launch vehicle.

The Mission Readiness Review team will meet on Friday and next day, the vehicle will be moved to the launch pad, said Radhakrishnan.

The vehicle will carry an indigenous cryogenic engine, to be used for the second time in GSLV. It was developed by Isro's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri, near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu.

The first flight that used Indian cryogenic stage failed in April 2010.

This would be GSLV's eighth flight and second with the indigenous cryogenic upper stage developed by LPSC.

GSLV-D5 was scheduled for launch at 4.50 pm on August 19 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota but the launch called off at the last minute after a leak was found during the pre-launch pressurisation process in the fuel system of the liquid second stage.

GSLV was first launched with GSAT-1 on April 18, 2001, a successful mission.

Out of the seven GSLV launches earlier, three were unsuccessful: GSLV-F02 launched with INSAT-4C on July 10, 2006; GSLV-D3 with GSAT-4 on April 15, 2010; and GSLV-F06 launched with GSAT-5P on December 25, 2010, according to Isro.

In the first mission, GSLV-D1, a Russian cryo, underperformed and in 2007, in the GSLV-F04 mission, one strap-on control failed though both the missions were successful.