sheeny
18-07-2006, 08:06 AM
Got this from this morning's news@nature.
Al.
Indian lift-off a let-down
Officials insist the country's space ambitions remain undaunted.
Killugudi Jayaraman
An Indian-made rocket carrying the country's latest telecom satellite, Insat-4C, went up in smoke on launch yesterday, raining debris into the Bay of Bengal.
But officials insist that the failure won't seriously affect India's space ambitions. The country has a series of contracts for commercial launches of satellites, including ones from Italy and Indonesia, that will take place as scheduled later this year. And India's ambitious Moon mission, slated for an early 2008 launch, relies on a different launch system so shouldn't be delayed or affected by the satellite incident.
The planned launch of an Israeli telescope by India in early 2007 might, however, be delayed.
The accident is the second setback to hit the Indian science community this week. On 9 July, India's intermediate-range ballistic missile Agni-III also failed in its first test-launch.
Out of control
The satellite launch mishap, which followed 12 successful missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), took place 60 seconds after lift-off. ISRO scientists had to destroy the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) when it began to careen from its intended trajectory.
In a televised interview, ISRO chairman Gopalan Madhavan Nair said the vehicle lost control after one of four strap-on boosters failed to develop thrust. "Even the US space shuttle had failures," he said. "We will find out the reason for the GSLV failure and solve it." Nair denied there was any basic design flaw.
The upcoming Moon mission, which will also carry scientific payloads from the United States and Europe, is still on track, as it will use a different rocket, called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This is ISRO's proven workhorse.
ISRO's contracted launches of commercial payloads will also use the PSLV, except for one launch of the Israeli space telescope TAUVEX. That will have to wait until an investigation committee determines the cause of yesterday's crash and decides how long the GSLV should stay grounded.
The ill-fated GSLV was on its second operational flight. Its payload should have added to a series of seven Insat communications satellites, intended to increase India's television broadcasting capacity by 50%. This was the first Insat satellite to be launched from India by India.
ISRO said it spent Rs1.5 billion (US$30 million) on the rocket and another Rs0.96 billion on the satellite.
Al.
Indian lift-off a let-down
Officials insist the country's space ambitions remain undaunted.
Killugudi Jayaraman
An Indian-made rocket carrying the country's latest telecom satellite, Insat-4C, went up in smoke on launch yesterday, raining debris into the Bay of Bengal.
But officials insist that the failure won't seriously affect India's space ambitions. The country has a series of contracts for commercial launches of satellites, including ones from Italy and Indonesia, that will take place as scheduled later this year. And India's ambitious Moon mission, slated for an early 2008 launch, relies on a different launch system so shouldn't be delayed or affected by the satellite incident.
The planned launch of an Israeli telescope by India in early 2007 might, however, be delayed.
The accident is the second setback to hit the Indian science community this week. On 9 July, India's intermediate-range ballistic missile Agni-III also failed in its first test-launch.
Out of control
The satellite launch mishap, which followed 12 successful missions by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), took place 60 seconds after lift-off. ISRO scientists had to destroy the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) when it began to careen from its intended trajectory.
In a televised interview, ISRO chairman Gopalan Madhavan Nair said the vehicle lost control after one of four strap-on boosters failed to develop thrust. "Even the US space shuttle had failures," he said. "We will find out the reason for the GSLV failure and solve it." Nair denied there was any basic design flaw.
The upcoming Moon mission, which will also carry scientific payloads from the United States and Europe, is still on track, as it will use a different rocket, called the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). This is ISRO's proven workhorse.
ISRO's contracted launches of commercial payloads will also use the PSLV, except for one launch of the Israeli space telescope TAUVEX. That will have to wait until an investigation committee determines the cause of yesterday's crash and decides how long the GSLV should stay grounded.
The ill-fated GSLV was on its second operational flight. Its payload should have added to a series of seven Insat communications satellites, intended to increase India's television broadcasting capacity by 50%. This was the first Insat satellite to be launched from India by India.
ISRO said it spent Rs1.5 billion (US$30 million) on the rocket and another Rs0.96 billion on the satellite.