Sriharikota:
Just an hour and 14 minutes before it was scheduled to lift off, coundown to the launch of India's massive home-made rocket and communications satellite, the GSAT-14, was halted today. Scientists at ISRO said a "leak" had been detected and they were not sure when the countdown would resume.
The countdown began on Sunday at 11.50 am at Sriharikota rocket port in Andhra Pradesh, for the launch scheduled at 4.50 pm today.
It was halted one hour and 14 minutes ahead of lift-off, after some 'leakage' was detected. Officials say they are not sure when the countdown can be resumed.
The rocket port is located about 80 km from Chennai.
"The rocket cost is around Rs 160 crore and the cost of the satellite is around Rs 45 crore," an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS, preferring anonymity.
The key significance of this Rs 205 crore launch is that the rocket's cryogenic engine is indigenously developed by ISRO.
This was the first mission of GSLV in the last three years, after two such rockets failed in 2010. One of the GSLV rockets flew with an Indian cryogenic engine, and the other one with a Russian engine.