ISRO has pinned its hopes on the GSLV-D5 after two of its previous missions failed in 2010
At 4.50 pm today, India will launch a home-made massive rocket and a communications satellite, GSAT-14. This is the second time in three years that an Indian-made cryogenic engine will be used for a rocket to deposit an advanced communications satellite in space.
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The Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is a rocket that weighs 415 tonnes - as much as 80 adult elephants. It is 50 metres high - as tall as a 17-storey building (Watch).
The rocket's cryogenic engine is indigenously developed by the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO).
The rocket has cost the country Rs 160 crore, and the satellite's price tag is Rs 45 crore. So the mission costs over Rs 200 crore.
In 2010, there were two massive setbacks for the GSLV programme. The first flight of a rocket with an Indian-made cryogenic engine failed as a crucial pump jammed. Then, on Christmas Day the same year, the rocket was destroyed in mid-air.
The GSLV is a three stage/engine rocket. The first stage is fired with solid fuel, the second with liquid fuel and the third is the cryogenic engine.
After the lift-off from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, about 80 kilometres north of Chennai, a 17-minute flight is intended to put the satellite into its designated orbit above Earth.
The sophisticated communications satellite called GSAT-14, is made in India and weighs 1982 kilograms.
The successful flight of the GSLV rocket is crucial for India as it will be the first step towards building rockets that can carry heavier payloads of up to four tonnes.
K Radhakrisnan, chairman, ISRO, said that lessons have been learnt from the 2010 twin disasters and that 'minor modifications and extensive ground testing' have been conducted.
It took India more than 20 years to develop this cryogenic engine technology. In the 1990s, America pressured Russia to cancel a technology transfer deal to India crucial for developing cryogenic engines.
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