Scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) gave the country a wonderful Onam gift in the form of an indigenously developed cryogenic engine capable of powering heavy lift rockets for deploying communication satellites weighing 2.5 tonnes into the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, 36,000 km away from earth.
Since most of the ISRO units in the country are headed by Malayalis, the success of the indigenous cryogenic engine is being treated as a Onam gift, a major festival in Kerala which falls on Friday. Team ISRO proved its mettle on Thursday by successfully deploying a 2117 Kg satellite (GSAT 6) into the GTO with a Geosynchronous Satellite launch Vehicle powered by the complicated cryogenic engine developed at the liquid Propulsion System Centre at Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu. At the stroke of 4.52 pm, the GSlV weighing 416 tonnes with GSAT-6 on board lifted off from the second launch pad of Sathish Dhavan Space Centre at Sriharikotta in Andhra Pradesh. The entire Sriharikotta range reverberated with the thundering noise generated by the GSlV D6 as it lifted off majestically into a clear sky.
The launch vehicle functioned as per the pre-flight programme scripted by Team ISRO. Immediately after the satellite was injected into the pre-determined orbit, AS Kiran Kumar, chairman, ISRO, declared that all systems in the GSlV D6 mission performed normally. “We have understood the functioning of all systems in the cryogenic engine,” said the ISRO chairman.
The success of the mission and the fact that Indian scientists have mastered the cryogenic engine technology essential for putting heavy satellites into the GTO was stated clearly by Uma Maheswaran, mission director. “This is Team ISRO’s Onam gift to the nation. The GSlV has been proved a magnificent, handsome and reliable launch vehicle. This ‘Made in India’ cryogenic engine can deploy 2.5 tonne class spacecraft into the GTO,” said Uma Maheswaran.
He recalled that K Sivan, former project director of the cryogenic engine mission had described the last GSlV launch from Srikarikotta in 2014 (GSlV D5 powered with an indigenous cryogenic engine) as the taming of a naughty boy. “Friends, today we have converted that tamed naughty boy into the most adored boy of the ISRO,” said Uma Maheswaran.
With the GSlV D6 performing as per the “script” of ISRO engineers, the day is not far off when it is accorded the fully operational status, said K Sivan, head, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, the nerve centre of the country’s launch vehicle programme. “The GSlV came out of the Agni Pareeksha on Thursday with flying colours,” said Sivan.
S Somnath, director, liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, who led the team which designed and built the cryogenic engine signed off in style: “We have mastered the cryogenic engine technology and the GSlV will soon emerge as our premier and trusted launch vehicle.”
For the country to get recognition as a space power by the global comity of nations, ISRO has to successfully launch a series of GSlV missions.