Indian space engineers lost contact with a rocket showcasing new indigenously built booster technology on Thursday soon after launch, in a major blow to the country's space ambitions.
The launch of the first India-made rocket powered by cryogenic motors, a complex technology mastered by just five countries, failed soon after lift-off from India's space centre at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters that the rocket began tumbling soon after launch "indicating the controllability was lost."
Cryogenic boosters use supercooled liquid fuel and the technology has only been successfully developed by the US, Russia, France, Japan and China.
India had previously imported seven cryogenic engines from Russia, using five of them to launch heavy satellites over the last decade.
The technology is intended to launch heavier satellites into high orbits, about 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) from the earth, ISRO has said.
The Rs 330 crore mission to flight test the first indigenous cryogenic engine failed after the rocket powered by it crashed into the sea five minutes after a perfect lift-off .
The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) carrying a 2,200 kg communications satellite plunged into the Bay of Bengal after it deviated from its flight-path dashing the country's hopes of joining an exclusive club of five nations that has mastered the complex cryogenic technology on which ISRO was working for 18 years.
The satellite was to have been put into a Geostationary orbit, 36,000 km above earth, but the initial euphoria after the textbook launch turned into disappointment.
ISROChairman K Radhakrishnan said scientists would test another cryogenic engine-powered GSLV within a year.
Shocked scientists watched blips on huge computer screens tracking the rocket's path disappear. The rocket swerved off its path 505 seconds after the launch in perfect weather.
Hundreds of space scientists were visibly disappointed by the sudden turn of events and former ISRO chairman K Kasturirangan was seen comforting Radhakrishnan for whom GSLV-D3 was the first mission after becoming the ISRO chief.
The 49-metre tall three-stage GSLV-D3, carrying the GSAT-4 advanced communications satellite, blasted off at 4.27 pm at the end of a 29-hour countdown. But soon scientists tracking the launch found that the rocket had deviated from the flight-path only to splash in the sea. "Our team has all the capability and the necessary resilience to build a cryogenic engine and within one year be ready to have the next flight test," the ISRO chief said.
In his initial remarks, Radhakrishnan said the cryogenic engine had ignited but the two Vernier engines had failed to develop the necessary controlling force. However, at the press conference, he said that it was not clear whether the cryogenic engine had ignited at all.
"We will carry out an analysis over the next two to three days to come to a conclusion on what exactly had happened, why it happened and what corrective measures needed to be taken," he said.
Though Radhakrishnan initially suspected that the vernier engine could not have ignited, he later said, "We are not very sure, after looking at the flight data, whether the cryogenic main engine, did ignite."
The rocket was tumbling, lost its control, altitude and finally splashed into the sea, he said, adding that the cause of the failure would be ascertained in two-three days after reviewing the flight data. PTI
