15.4.10

GSLV launch

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle GSLV-D3, the first Indian rocket to be powered by a totally indigenous cryogenic engine, will blast off today from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota at 4.27 pm. The 416-tonne vehicle will carry GSAT-4, a 2,218-kg communication satellite, to be put in an orbit 36,000 km from earth. Countdown for the launch began at 11.27 am. “All parameters of the vehicle are normal and we are proceeding with the pre-launch tests. So far the weather conditions are als favourable. We are looking forward to a historic launch,” M Nageswara Rao, project director of GSAT-4 spacecraft said. Fuelling of the second stage, which started on Wednesday, will go on till 6 am on Thursday, after which the vehicle will be powered. The cryogenic upper stage will be fuelled only four hours before the launch. “We are repeatedly checking all systems and everything looks fine. Drifts of the gyroscope (an equipment crucial for maintaining and changing directions) will now be corrected every hour till a few minutes before the launch. The rocket will be ignited 4.8 seconds before liftoff,” Rao said. So far only the US, Russia, European Space Agency, China and Japan have developed cryogenic engines.

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