Neelam Mathews
Oct 6, 2012
Even as India hails its PSLV successes,
slipups in its Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle [GSLV], have delayed the
launch of the Indian Navy satellite GSAT-7 which will now be launched
using an Ariane-5 rocket from the Kourou island in French Guiana.
The launch is
tentatively scheduled for the end of
this year, or the first month of 2013, Aerospace Diary learns. GSAT-7/INSAT-4F
is proposed as a multi-band communication satellite carrying payloads in UHF,
S-band, C-band and Ku-band.
On the aerospace command, Air
Chief Marshal NAK Browne said:"We need to look at three areas - aerospace, cyber
and cooperation.” On the space cell
managed by the military, DRDO and ISRO, he noted: “it needs bigger
infrastructure…”
Delayed by over
a year, GSAT-7A will be launched after GSAT-7is launched. “It will be an air
force satellite with some bandwidth for the navy,” said Browne.
Former ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair had suggested some time ago
that qualifying the cryogenic engine for the GSLV should be paramount. His words seem to have evaded
ISRO.
In December 2010, the homegrown
GSLV-06 vehicle was destroyed by its flight termination system when it veered
off course less than a minute after liftoff. The GSAT-5P communications
satellite, carrying 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders, plunged into the Bay of
Bengal. In April 2010, the GSLV-D3 carrying GSAT-4, had failed.
The success rate for GSLV becomes
a concern after the successive launch failures. “There is a need to
enhance collaboration with international players to provide the economic
benefit, skilled assets while adapting the best international
practices in the industry. Such arrangements should help in procuring the
right and appropriate equipment as well,” says an official to Aerospace Diary.
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