courtsy-ISRO
Not much is being harped upon success of GSLV-D5 by ISRO and rightly so.It is a step forward
after many steps back. It is not still commercially viable i.e. no agency or country will
put it's money on it's satellite launch by GSLV. Minimum of three more successful
GSLV launches can only put ISRO as a front runner.
after many steps back. It is not still commercially viable i.e. no agency or country will
put it's money on it's satellite launch by GSLV. Minimum of three more successful
GSLV launches can only put ISRO as a front runner.
A cryogenic rocket engine is
an engine that uses cryogenic
fuel , that is, its
fuel or
oxidizer (or both) are gases liquefied and stored at very low temperatures
to cool the propellants down to sub zero temperatures , converting them to liqiud
form.
The
cryogenic rocket engine provides more thrust than conventional liquid rocket engines but the fuel and oxidizer needs to be super cooled in order to keep them in a liquid state.
There is
also a difference between the PSLV and GSLV in terms of the rocket itself. The
PSLV has 4 stages that alternate between solid and liquid fuels while the GSLV
has three stages with the only the first stage having solid fuel.
Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (abbreviated as GSLV)
launch its
satellites indigenously without dependence on foreign aid. GSLV has
attempted
eight launches to date, since its first launch in 2001 . Three launches have
been
successful, four have failed, and one was a partial failure, placing the
satellite
into an unplanned, but recoverable, orbit. The most recent flight, GSLV-D5 was
launched successfully on 5 January 2014
during its second attempt.
Two launches in 2010 both
failed; the first, in April, was the first flight of the GSLV
Mk.II, with an
Indian-developed third stage engine replacing the Russian engine used
on
earlier flights. The third stage failed to ignite. The next launch, in
December, used
the Russian engine, however the vehicle went out of control
during first stage flight
and was destroyed by range safety.
Problems with the
connectors had occurred before – including one snapping in
Russian built
interstage adaptor during the launch of
INSAT-4CR which was
responsible for the underperformance of that launch by GSLV-F04. .
The probable success rate of GSLV is put to be 0.29 (29%) by NASA.
