ISRO’s Christmas show falls to pieces, rocket explodes after lift-off

India's space programme suffered a setback today when one of its communication satellites aboard a Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) exploded less than a minute after lift-off from the spaceport in Sriharikota and fell into the sea.

GSAT-5P, carrying 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders, aboard a homegrown vehicle GSLV F06 failed after the rocket veered from its flight path and broke into pieces.

The destruct command was issued when the control and command signal failed to reach the activation system at the first stage itself, ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan told a press conference shortly after the aborted launch, the second in nine months in the Indian space programme.

The satellite was meant for augmenting communication services currently provided by the Indian National Satellite System. Built at Rs125 crore, it was to replace the INSAT-3E that was sent up in 2003.

The rocket blasted-off at around 4pm from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the end of the 29-hour countdown but was hit by a snag in the first stage itself.

"I am extremely sorry to say that GSLV F06 mission has failed," he said. Taking the failure in his stride, the ISRO chief said space agency everywhere goes through such failures.

"We learn from failures and such failures lead to success," he said.

Reconstructing the events, Radhakrishnan said when the destruct signal was given the vehicle was at an altitude of 8 km and a distance of 2.5 km away from Sriharikota. The debris have fallen in the sea.

"At T-63 seconds, when we saw the visuals of it breaking up and it also became clear in the radar and the destruct command was issued," he said.

All the four liquid strap on motors worked as expected and the mission was still in the first stage, he said.

Radhakrishnan said the cause of disruption will be studied in detail and experts and review committee will sit today and tomorrow to find out the exact cause of the failure.

"We hope to get an assessment of what exactly triggered the problem and will go back to it," he said.

Initial data indicated that control command from onboard computer ceased to reach the first stage of GSLV.

The controllability of the vehicle after about 47 seconds because "we found control and command did not reach the activation system of L-40."

The GSAT-5P was meant to give a boost to communication services including TV, telephone and telemedicine services.

The satellite was originally scheduled for launch on December 20 but was postponed a day earlier after a leak was noticed in the cryogenic stage during pre-countdown checks.

This is the second consecutive setback for India's space programme this year after the GSLV-D3 veered off its flight path and plunged into the Bay of Bengal along with GSAT-4 on April 15, dampening India's bid to join the elite club of five nations possessing the cryogenic technology.

The last GSLV mission (GSLV-D3) failed after the malfunctioning of indigenous cryogenic stage, dampening the country's hopes of joining the elite club of five nations with such capability.

Recalling the earlier failures, Radhakrishnan said in April three days after the launch failed, ISRO was able to come out with the reasons.

"This is part of the game. We have to go through it. What is the reason for this, whether it is fundamental to the vehicle will be gone into," he said.

"We hope to get an assement on exactly what had triggered the probelm. The control of the vehicle was lost at 47 seconds. What we suspect is that the connection which takes the signal down to the first stage snapped. Why it happened and what happend will have to be seen," he said.

Asked if he suspected sabotage, he said "I don't know".

To a question if the image of India which is eying for a greater share in the space launch market would be affected overseas, he said, "We learn from failures. The PSLV first launch failed so as GSLV."

Radhakrishnan said the vehicle developed large altitude error leading to higher angle of attack leading to higher structural load and leading to breaking up of the vehicle.

In the GSLV-FO6, the cryogenic upper stage was procured from Russia as was the case in the first five flights of GSLV since 2001. Today's failure was the third unsuccessful GSLV mission out of its seven flights, six using Russian cryogenic engines.

Anxiety gave away to gloom at the mission control centre as the rocket showed signs of meeting an unexpected end.

Minutes after the lift-off, GSLV F06 was seen exploding, leaving in its trail red and orange colour flames, leading to a melancholic silence in the mission control tower where the scientists were glued to the monitors.

The 2310 kg satellite, developed by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, is the fifth in the GSAT series. Four predecessors of GSAT-5P were launched on board GSLV and three of them GSAT-1, GSAT-2 and GSAT-3 (EDUSAT) reached the orbit successfully.

Radhakrishnan said all strap on motors generated normal pressure before the solid core ignited and performance was normal upto 50 seconds when it developed problem.

Talking about failures, he said ISRO's Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle Programme failed in the first two launches like the first launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle.

In GSLV itself, of the seven launches two have failed.