The launch of the Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F06) from here on Saturday ended in a failure, with the vehicle losing control 47 seconds after its flight, breaking up into pieces and erupting into a ball of flame.
As the vehicle veered off the safety corridor and the flaming debris could have fallen on the residential areas around Sriharikota, Range Safety Officer (RSO) V.K. Srivastava pressed the “destruct” button and the explosives around the vehicle ignited and destroyed it.
The destruct command was given 63 seconds after the lift-off.
When the vehicle disintegrated over the Bay of Bengal, it had reached an altitude of eight km and 2.5 km from the Sriharikota coastline. Gloom engulfed the Indian Space Research Organisation's engineers as they saw disaster striking the vehicle.
ISRO Chairman K. Radhakrishnan said at a press conference: “The controllability of the vehicle was lost after 47 seconds because we found that the command to control it did not reach the actuator system in the first stage of the vehicle… We suspect that a connector chord, which takes the signal down, has snapped.”
Director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in Thiruvanthapuram P.S. Veeraraghavan explained that the command to control the vehicle from the Equipment Bay, the electronic brain of the vehicle resident atop the rocket, did not reach the actuators in the first stage. “So it was not basically a design problem but a problem of the connector snapping.”
The GSLV-F06, carrying communication satellite GSAT-5P, had a flawless lift-off at the appointed time of 4.04 p.m. It climbed majestically into the sky as the four strap-on booster motors around the core first stage and the first stage itself ignited on time.
The vehicle performance was normal up to 50 seconds. Soon afterwards, it lost control, went here and there, exploded into a ball of fire, and then it was destroyed. White, reddish orange and dark grey smoke filled the sky even as the flaming debris, like shooting stars, rained down.
Four GSLV failures
The previous GSLV flight in April 2010 also failed. Out of seven GSLV flights from 2001, four, including the latest one, have failed.
Keywords: GSLV, GSAT-5P, Sriharikota rocket launch centre, ISRO
It is slowly emerging that the cause for failure is pointed at connector snap. But it is a silly excuse. Even PC connectors have screws to lock them and it is difficult to believe that a rocket vehicle is goes without locking the connectors. Most probably it is rupture of wire harness that connects the on board computer to various vehicle systems. We also hear that ISRO modified the Russian cryogenic stage to take in more fuel to launch a satellite that was 100kg excess in weight. If that is true, then ISRO has to take the blame for tinkering with a vehicle before proving its basic configuration. Overconfidence may be the real cause!!
Successive failures in GSLV launch, though raises doubts in people's mind, the ISRO scientists should be supported in this hour. There have been failures of complex projects even in the developed world and these failures should not demoralize the spirit. By learning from these failures and working with disciplined approach, ISRO can prove the critics wrong, after all there are only handful of countries involved in this business of launching satellites into space. Need of the hour is to encourage the scientific personal not make them dejected citing complacency and corruption. Had there been complacency chandrayaan-I would not have been a success. Lastly, it is not waste of tax payer's money, it is an investment and success could probably reduce tax burden of citizens as indigenous communications satellites help eliminate dependency on foreign satellites for our communications.
Our country is sixth in rank of space program. And ISRO is famous for its cost effectiveness all over the world. Actually ISRO is getting advantage of this position and it established commercial agency i.e. ANTRIX to launch satellite of others. This two successive failure will cause major setback for ISRO position in world space market by which ISRO can collect its own fund and Govt. expenditure will reduce. So isro must look into the failure and such type incident should be stopped
An organisation like ISRO can't afford to fail consecutively. Too much is at stake at every launch. We could do with reallocation of the money to bettering the health and education of millions if ISRO cannot guarantee flawless execution; even if that means a step back on our space prowess.
Another set back for ISRO. Two successive failures will raise questions in people's mind. The cause of the accident looks so trivial. ISRO may need to revamp its testing and quality control procedures to make sure that such accidents do not happen in the future.
The repeated failures of these space missions are a major cause for concern. These vehicles are built with hundreds of crores of people's money that can be utilized for other productive purposes, and there appears no accountability for such colossal missteps. Our society is riddled with corruption, mistrust and unscientific approach to solving problems. What if the Agni and other weapon programs have similar quality and they fail at the most critical time? We need a disciplined approach to address root cause problems with the space program. Our scientists should not worry about pleasing some political bosses to achieve superficial success.
Someone needs to go for this 2nd consecutive failure. If ISRO cannot ensure Six-Sigma quality for it's primary heavy lift vehicle, then the sort of management that's going on at ISRO is highly questionable. Maybe the ISRO scientists have grown used to Russians spoon feeding for launching GSLV. This failure makes me suspect that ISRO scientists don't have the slightest clue about building and operating a GSLV type rocket. It's way above their heads.
They should have tested it more thoroughly....After all the leaks they should have spent more time exploring what might go wrong it they continue to launch.This simply is waste of tax payers money, carelessly.
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