The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) launched India’s “eye in the sky” GISAT-1 Earth observation satellite (EOS) on Thursday, but the mission was hampered by a performance anomaly in the rocket’s cryogenic stage moments later. According to Isro, the rocket’s performance in the first and second stages was normal. “GSLV-F10 launch took place today at 0543 Hrs IST as scheduled. Performance of first and second stages was normal. However, Cryogenic Upper Stage ignition did not happen due to technical anomaly. The mission couldn’t be accomplished as intended,” the space agency tweeted.
Union minister of state (MoS) in charge of the department of space Jitendra Singh said that he has discussed the matter at length with the Isro chairman, adding that the mission can be re-scheduled some time again. “Spoke to Isro chairman Dr K Sivan and discussed in detail,” Singh minister tweeted. “The first two stages went off fine, only after that, there was a difficulty in the cryogenic upper stage ignition. The mission can be re-scheduled some time again,” he said.
As part of the GSLV-F10 EOS-03 mission, the satellite was launched on a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC) in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh. India was enthralled by the much-hyped event, which was staged just days before the country’s achievements were celebrated on Independence Day.
The 51.70-meter tall rocket lifted off majestically from the second launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport at 5.43 a.m. on Thursday, after a 26-hour countdown. The satellite successfully completed its second stage and began cryogenic operations in the third phase 12 minutes after launch.
However, Isro chairman K Sivan said moments after that the mission could not be completed successfully. “There was an anomaly observed in the cryogenic stage. Isro’s GSLV-F10/EOS-03 mission could not be fully accomplished,” Sivan was heard saying during the live telecast of the launch.
Officials familiar with the situation said that the mission’s researchers were not receiving performance data from the cryogenic engine.
The launch vehicle was to place the Earth observation satellite in the Geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO), a highly elliptic geocentric orbit that almost always serves as an intermediate step for satellites before reaching their final orbit, according to Isro. After that, the satellite was supposed to use an onboard propulsion system to get to its final geostationary orbit.
The space agency even tweaked the fairing capsule used in its satellite this time. This time, Isro said it sent an Ogive-shaped payload with a diameter of 4 metres, which was a first.
The GISAT-1 satellite was designed to collect spectral signatures for agriculture, forestry, mineralogy, cloud properties, snow and glaciers, and oceanography, allowing researchers to learn more about a variety of topics. According to officials familiar with the matter, India was expected to be able to monitor and respond to natural disasters and other short-term events at an alarming rate based on these photographs.
