The Hindu : Front Page : EDUSAT placed in orbit

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 21, 2004

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Front Page

EDUSAT placed in orbit

By T.S. Subramanian

SOARING SUCCESS: The GSLV-F04 on its flawless flight after liftoff from the SHAR range on Monday. -- Photo: Vino John

SRIHARIKOTA, SEPT. 20. India once again demonstrated that it is a world leader in space when its Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-FO1) raced into the sky from the spaceport at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, at 4.01 p.m. today and put EDUSAT in a perfect orbit 17 minutes later.

This is the third successful flight for the GSLV after the earlier successful flights from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota in April 2001 and May 2003. For the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), this is the 10th successful flight in a row.

The 1,950-kg EDUSAT is the heaviest satellite launched so far by ISRO. EDUSAT is India's first exclusive satellite for educational services.

`Excellent mission'

This is the first operational flight of the GSLV. The previous two GSLV flights were developmental missions. G. Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO, called it an "excellent" mission. "We did not have any hold at all. The entire launch sequence went on as planned. The trajectory was unbelievably good."

The success was all the more sweeter because heavy rains and thunder clouds threatened to disrupt the launch. There was lightning too. "We thought we should postpone the launch," Mr. Nair said. But using a radar that ISRO had developed and a balloon launch for measuring the height of the cloud and the wind velocity, and thereby redesigning the trajectory of the flight, ISRO decided at 8.30 a.m. today to go ahead. And the countdown proceeded without any hitch.

Spectacular

The GSLV-FO1 lifted off on the dot at 4.01 p.m., and the giant vehicle soaring into the sky on top of balls of orange flames. The three stages of the vehicle ignited on schedule and they jettisoned with clockwork precision. Seventeen minutes after the lift-off, the third cryogenic stage injected EDUSAT into orbit at a velocity of 37,000 km an hour. It went into a perfect geo-synchronous transfer orbit with an apogee of 35,985 km and a perigee of 180.54 km.

EDUSAT would revolutionise distance education. From a television studio, a teacher can teach any subject, and if schools/colleges have reception facilities, they can simultaneously listen to him.

Editorial on Page 8

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