The Hindu : Front Page : GSLV to be launched today

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Sunday, Sep 02, 2007
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GSLV to be launched today

T.S. Subramanian

It will put into orbit INSAT-4CR

The vehicle and the satellite are in good health
The satellite will provide DTH services

CHENNAI: The 27-hour countdown for the launch of India’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV-F04, began at 1.21 p.m. on Saturday and is progressing smoothly for the vehicle’s lift-off at 4.21 p.m. on Sunday (September 2) from the spaceport at Sriharikota. The GSLV-F04 will put in orbit the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) latest communication satellite, INSAT-4CR.

“The countdown started at 1.21 p.m. today. Everything is going smoothly. The weather looks to be okay,” said B. N. Suresh, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), Thiruvananthapuram.

“Both the vehicle and the satellite are in good health,” Dr. Suresh said. The launch would take place from the recently-built second launch pad on the shore of the Sriharikota island.

The 49-metre-high GSLV is a three-stage vehicle, weighing 414 tonnes. The first stage consists of a core motor powered by solid propellants. Four strap-on engines, fed by liquid fuel, surround the first stage. The second stage comes alive with liquid propellants. Cryogenic fluids — liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen — provide the thrust to the third uppermost stage. This stage is imported from Russia.

The INSAT-4CR, which weighs 2,130 kg, will provide direct-to-home television services and help in gathering news via satellite. It will also serve users of very small aperture terminals (VSATs), that is, business communications. The ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore, built INSAT-4CR within one year to replace an identical satellite, INSAT-4C, which was lost due to the failure of GSLV-F02 on July 10, 2006. While G. Ravindranath is the Mission Director for this flight, N. Jayachandran Nair is the Vehicle Director. Prahlada Rao is the Satellite Director.

The VSSC has built the GSLV-F04. Its three stages were stacked up in the sophisticated Vehicle Assembly Building at Sriharikota and wheeled on a massive pedestal to the launch pad.

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