On Saturday, a little more than two minutes after lifting off from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota, 100 km from Chennai, the rocket deviated from its path and exploded mid-air. The monitors showed the rocket plunging, apparently into the Bay of Bengal. While the last launch's problem was with the cryogenic engine, this time trouble happened soon after the first stage and much before the cryogenic engine was to be fired. Scientists are yet to give an official explanation for the failure.
After the last GSLV (D3), which used the first indigenous cryogenic engine, failed on April 15, 2010, ISRO had decided to use a pre-purchased Russian cryogenic engine for Saturday's launch. GSLV-F06 was to be launched last Monday, but it had to be postponed after engineers detected a leak in the cryogenic engine which could have proved disastrous. On Saturday, the vehicle blasted off from the Sriharikota spaceport at 4.04pm. It was to inject the 2,300-kg satellite 19 minutes later. The satellite was to be used to boost television broadcast, telemedicine and tele-education. But soon after the first stage separation at 148 seconds, the mission failed.
ISRO has had a troubled past with GSLV, with only two of the seven launches so far claiming total success. Though ISRO claims that four launches had been successful, independent observers call at least two of them either failure or partial success. When it comes to launching its workhorse PSLV, ISRO has had 15 consecutive successes.
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