by Playfuls Staff |
10th July 2006
While everyone is eyeing Discovery’s evolution near the International Space Station and is concerned with its safe return home, another tragic event happens on Earth, at Sriharikota Space Center in India.[more]
The heaviest satellite produced on Indian soil-INSAT-4C- also “died” on the same ground on Monday. The rocket that carried it into the sky exploded in air shortly after the launch, after a “spectacular” tail-spin. Luckily enough it didn’t hit anyone on the space center, disintegrating in air.
"We can not comment now on what went wrong," an official at the Indian Space Research Organisation, who did not wish to be named, said.
The Indian television showed images that reminded the tragic launch of Challenger space shuttle in 1986, with the rocket and the satellite bursting into flames and eventually falling into pieces in Bengal Bay, after about a minute since take-off and at a 70-100km altitude.
The launch took place from the Sriharikota launch site off the country's southeastern coast in the Bay of Bengal.
The deviation from the trajectory might have been caused by the satellite’s enormous mass-2.2 tons, making it the heaviest ever artificial object launched into sky from the Indian space center.
Analysts say that India has missed the chance of joining the exclusivist club of space powers like the US, Russia, Japan or China, which have had successful launches from their own territory. The 2,170kg INSAT-4C was attached to the India-built Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV).
“There seems to be a mishap in the first stage of launch,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here. “We have to analyze the data.”
On Sunday, the test-firing of India's longest-range nuclear-capable missile also failed, when the Agni III plunged into the sea after being in the air for only five minutes instead of the expected 15.
This failed launch should be a set-back for ISRO, the Indian Space Research Organization, which is also readying a 4 tons satellite for 2008, planned for mission at the same modern launch pad.
INSAT-4C was a part of the ambitious Indian space program INSAT under ISRO guidance. The INSAT program now has eight satellites in operation: INSAT-2E, INSAT-3A, INSAT-3B, INSAT-3C, INSAT-3E, KALPANA-1, GSAT-2 and EDUSAT. Indian officials responsible with the program are bragging with the fact that by 2007 they will have about 225 active transponders in various frequency bands by 2007.
INSAT-4C was an exclusive Ku-band satellite with 12 high power Ku-band transponders providing India coverage primarily for direct-to-home TV broadcasting. It was designed to have a life-span of at least 10 years.
India decided to put the satellite into orbit using its proprietary rocket in order to reduce costs. The first two INSAT satellites were launched using the European-built Ariane rocket, and were taken to Ariane’s launch pad in the French Guyana. INSAT-4C was the third in a series of 7 that India plans to send onto Earth’s orbit by 2010. India claimed at the beginning of July that it was able to reduce launch costs by around 40 percent using its own launcher.
The Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system is a joint venture of the Department of Space (DOS), Department of Telecommunications (DOT), India Meteorological Department (IMD), All India Radio (AIR) and Doordarshan. Founded in 1983, it is now one of the largest domestic communication satellite systems in the Asia Pacific Region.
