The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has successfully launched a GSAT-14 communication satellite onboard its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D5), powered by a domestic-built cryogenic engine.
The rocket was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota, in the state of Andhra Pradesh on 5 January at 4.18pm IST.
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It completed all key flight phases, the core stage and strap-on stage propulsion, payload fairing separation, second stage propulsion, cryogenic stage propulsion and spacecraft separation.
Around 17 minutes after liftoff, the 1,982kg satellite was successfully injected into a geosynchronous transfer orbit with a Perigee (nearest point to Earth) of 175km and an Apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 35,945km.
The first orbit raising process of GSAT-14 was scheduled for 7.58am IST today, with the remaining two orbit raising operations planned for 7 and 9 January 2014 in order to place the satellite in geostationary orbit.
This latest launch of GSLV rocket with domestic-built cryogenic engine follows two earlier failures.
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By GlobalDataISRO tested its first domestic-built cryogenic engine and failed in April 2010, and its plans to launch GSLV-5 in August last year were also dropped due to technical problems.
With the project’s success, India now has the ability to inject satellites weighing more than 2t in orbit, joining countries such as the US, Russia, France, Japan and China, which are already using the cryogenic propellants, liquid oxygen at -183°C and liquid hydrogen at -253°C.
Image: ISRO’s GSLV-D5 was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota in the state of Andhra Pradesh. Photo: courtesy of ISRO.
