ISRO launches GSLV-D5 successfully

Chief of India's space research organization (ISRO), K. Radhakrishnan on Sunday declared its success in launching the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5) from Sriharikota.

"The GSLV-D5 with Indian cryogenic engine and stage did its job extremely well. We targeted an orbit with a perigee of 179 km and we got it exactly. We targeted an apogee of 36,000 km; we are just off by 50 kms," said Radhakirshnan.

"The most important element of this mission was the flight testing of the Indian cryogenic engine and stage and its performance as required, as expected for the mission, it's an important milestone for the country," he said.

It would be the first step towards building rockets. After facing numerous setbacks, ISRO launched the GSLV-D5 at 4.30 (IST).

"We have also had a mix setback as far as GSLV vehicle power saver is concerned and we did study whatever the change is required therein and that was also done and that is what brings us to this day," said Radhakrishnan.

This would be the first successful mission of the GSLV after two such rocket launches failed in 2010.

After ISRO's successful launch of its first rocket to Mars, all eyes are now glued on the space body to see whether the GSLV, powered by its own crucial cryogenic engine, would be successful or not.

Earlier, ISRO planned to launch the rocket in August 2013 but had to abort it just hours before the deadline due to fuel leakage from its second engine.

Radhakrishnan also talked about the future projects of the space body and said that it would now be working on a GSLV vehicle series.

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"We are now going for a series of GSLV vehicles required to launch GSAT-6, GSAT-7A, GSAT-9, GISAT-Chandrayaan 2 and few more communication satellites which are of the 2 ton class," he said.