Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) were set to launch their heaviest satellite from near here on Monday to retire an old one sent up in 1999 and ensure continuity of telecom, TV and weather services, officials said.Scientists at the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) were set to launch their heaviest satellite from near here on Monday to retire an old one sent up in 1999 and ensure continuity of telecom, TV and weather services, officials said.
The launch vehicle is 51 metres tall, weighs 418 tonnes and costs around Rs.175 crore (Rs.1.75 billion). The satellite, with a payload of 2,310 kg, has a price tag of Rs.125 crore.
ISRO has till date sent up six GSLV rockets with satellites, of which only two missions were full successes and one a partial victory. The rest could not accomplish their mission of slinging the satellite into their intended path of orbit.
The 2007 flight was considered a partial success and the April 2010 flight carrying the GSAT-4 satellite is considered historic as the rocket's cryogenic engine, too, was made in-house by the space agency. They were using Russian-made cryogenic engines earlier.
The Dec 22 launch will again be on a Russian engine.
Unfortunately, the April 2010 mission failed as the rocket fell into the Bay of Bengal due to a malfunction in the indigenous cryogenic engine. ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan had then said the next launch with an Indian engine will be within a year.
The latest has a payload of 2,310 kg, with 36 transponders -- an automatic receiver and transmitter of communication or broadcast signals. A successful launch of the satellite will take the agency's transponder capacity to around 235 from 200 in orbit now. IANS
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