GSLV launch fails
Posted: Mon, Jul 10, 2006, 1:19 PM ET (1719 GMT)
An Indian rocket carrying a domestic communications satellite flew off course and was destroyed shortly after liftoff Monday. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the east coast of India at 8:08 am EDT (1208 GMT) Monday. According to media accounts, the rocket went off course less than a minute after liftoff and later exploded, raining debris into the Bay of Bengal. While ISRO, in a terse statement, would only say that the rocket "could not complete the mission", officials are reportedly focusing their attention on one of four strap-on liquid-propellant boosters, whose thrust apparently dropped to zero, creating an asymmetric thrust that caused the GSLV to stray off course. The GSLV was carrying the INSAT 4C communications satellite; the 2,168-kg spacecraft carried 12 Ku-band transponders designed to provide video services from 74 degrees east longitude in GEO. The failure was the first in four launch attempts for the GSLV, India's largest booster.
An Indian rocket carrying a domestic communications satellite flew off course and was destroyed shortly after liftoff Monday. The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) rocket lifted off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on the east coast of India at 8:08 am EDT (1208 GMT) Monday. According to media accounts, the rocket went off course less than a minute after liftoff and later exploded, raining debris into the Bay of Bengal. While ISRO, in a terse statement, would only say that the rocket "could not complete the mission", officials are reportedly focusing their attention on one of four strap-on liquid-propellant boosters, whose thrust apparently dropped to zero, creating an asymmetric thrust that caused the GSLV to stray off course. The GSLV was carrying the INSAT 4C communications satellite; the 2,168-kg spacecraft carried 12 Ku-band transponders designed to provide video services from 74 degrees east longitude in GEO. The failure was the first in four launch attempts for the GSLV, India's largest booster.| <<previous article | next article>> |
|
news in brief
|
|
|
|
news links
|
|
Wednesday, January 7
Boeing Increases Capability of On-Orbit US Navy Satellite
Boeing — 1:51 pm ET (1851 GMT) Boeing ordered to pay ICO $631M in damages
AP — 1:50 pm ET (1850 GMT) Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo mothership faces rudder problem
Flight International — 1:49 pm ET (1849 GMT) Japan to monitor greenhouse gases from space
Reuters — 1:48 pm ET (1848 GMT) Perfect Space Storm Could be Catastrophic on Earth, Study Concludes
SPACE.com — 1:45 pm ET (1845 GMT) |