RE: GSLV-F09 / GSAT-9 Mission
GSAT-9 launch: With South Asia Satellite Isro moves into heavyweight category | opinion | Hindustan Times
Updated: May 05, 2017 17:25 IST By Prakash Chandra
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mk II has launched from Sriharikota carrying India’s GSAT-9 (rechristened “the South Asia Satellite”) into orbit 36,000 km above Earth. While media attention is focused on the political significance of the satellite — New Delhi is keen to showcase the GSAT-9 as a ‘gift’ to South Asian countries — Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) scientists are more interested in the launch vehicle’s performance. And with good reason, too, as the success of the mission depends wholly on the rocket performing flawlessly. In fact, hardly the countdown to the launch ended when another began, this time for the launch of India’s heaviest rocket, GSLV Mk III. “We hope the GSLV Mk II has a good launch,” S Somnath, director of Isro’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, told this correspondent in a telephonic interview. “For that’ll lead into the GSLV Mk III’s flight towards the end of May or beginning of June.”
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Considering that the global space market’s future will be defined by heavy lift boosters, it is imperative for Isro to develop the GSLV’s advanced avatars as soon as possible. The international launch scene is changing rapidly with newer launchers constantly pushing the bar higher on payload capability. Isro scientists seem ready for the challenge and
have set their sights on leapfrogging to GSLVs powered by semi-cryogenic engines. Fuelled by kerosene and liquid oxygen, these engines would be capable of lofting ten-ton satellites into space, cutting launch costs dramatically. “We expect to test the prototype of a semi-cryogenic engine in a year’s time,” says Somnath. “And we may fly it by 2021. Engine development takes a very long time, at least 10 years for realisation.”
But for the moment, all eyes are on the GSLV Mk II as it gets ready to scorch ether.
