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India has long proved its proficiency in launching the kind of
rocket Prime Minister Narendra Modi saw lift off on
Monday, but the country’s future growth in space will
depend exclusively on its success with the indigenous
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV)
programme that is now far from reliable.
The Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) has been the
work horse of Indian space programme, notching up 26
successful launches since 1994, but cannot carry
communication satellites weighing more than 2,000kg into
space.
This limits India’s ability to compete with countries such as
France or China for the multi-million dollar global satellite
launch business as well as forces it to hire foreign space
firms to launch its own heavy satellites.
So far, India’s GSLV programme is far from perfect, having
been successfully launched only once using a home-built
cryogenic engine after more than a decade of setbacks. The
repeated failure of the programme saw GSLV being termed
as the ‘naughty boy’ of ISRO.
In January this year, Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) successfully launched GSLV-D5 using its indigenous
cryogenic technology, putting it on the map of a select club
of nations that can launch heavy satellites.
But experts see it as just the first step in the direction of
developing a reliable launch system for the delivery of heavy
satellites into different orbits.
“We must build on this success to become proficient in
GSLV launches as well,” says S Satish, formerly of ISRO.
“We are still far from being able to deliver payloads
weighing 4500-5000kg.”
For Indian space scientists, that goal is now being worked
upon. Besides developing the GSLV-MK II, which has a
comparatively low payload capacity, ISRO is developing the
GSLV-Mk III launch vehicle which is expected to deliver
payload weighing 4500 to 5000kg.In comparison, Russian
and French rockets can carry four times that payload and
into higher orbits.
“The fact is we should be paying more attention to our GSLV
programme than celebrating yet another PSLV launch,” said
an official connected with India’s space programme on
condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the
issue.
Currently, ISRO plans to undertake more than 50 missions
and is proposing to deploy 500 satellite communications
transponders in the next five years.
That is easier said than done, given that ISRO is still to
consistently prove the GSLV design, realisation and
sustained firing of its indigenous cryogenic engine.
Until then, experts say, it cannot hope to offer itself as a
low-cost launch option for launching heavy satellites that
would give stiff competition to global commercial satellite
launch companies such as Europe’s Ariane or Russia’s
Proton rockets.
