GSLV-D5 Rocket launched successfully with indigenous cryogenic technology Sunday Jan 05,2014

The Indian Space Research Organisation(ISRO)achieved another milestone on sunday Jan 05,2014 as it successfully launched the Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle or GSLV-D5 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

ISRO has now become the sixth space agency in the world after US, Russia, Japan, China and France to have tasted success with an indigenous cryogenic engine.

The advanced GSAT-14 communications satellite that the rocket was carrying has also been placed into orbit.

The Rs. 350-crore mission marks India's entry into the multi-billion dollar commercial launcher market on a fully indigenous large rocket. ISRO said the GSLV-D5 will be operational after one more test.

"I am happy to say that Team ISRO has done it," ISRO chief Dr K Radhakrishnan said after what was a make-or-break launch for the space agency owing to two earlier failures.

An India-made cryogenic engine powers the GSLV that stands almost 50 meters tall (as high as a 17-storey building) and weighs a whopping 415 tons (as much 80 full grown elephants). The three-stage rocket will launch an advanced communications satellite.

At about 130 kilometer altitude above the Earth, the second stage separates and the all-important cryogenic engine takes over. Using very cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen as fuel, this special engine helps launch heavier satellites into space. After a 17-minute flight, the satellite is expected to be put into its designated orbit above the Earth.


Note
The GSLV program had suffered twin back-to-back failures three years ago and its last launch in August was aborted minutes before lift-off.On April 15, 2010, the first flight with an India-made cryogenic engine failed as a crucial pump jammed and then on Christmas Day the same year, the rocket was destroyed in mid-air as ISRO lost control of it. 

On August 19, 2013, a major mishap was averted and the launch of the GSLV was aborted 74 minutes before lift-off after ISRO scientists found that about 750 kilograms of highly inflammable and explosive fuel had leaked out in the second stage.