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GSLV-D3 crashes into Bay of Bengal
N Ravikumar/TNS

Sriharikota (AP), April 15
The first test flight of India's indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage was "not successful" as the vehicle lost control 293 seconds after the launch and crashed into the Bay of Bengal.

ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan, who informed about the test result, said "the cryogenic engine was supposed to give half of the velocity to place the vehicle in the geostationary orbit. We are not very sure whether the cryogenic engine did ignite. We have to confirm it after detailed analysis".

"The vehicle lifted off at 4.27 pm as planned after a 29-hour countdown which was eventless. It was okay till the end of the second stage which was 293 seconds. After that the vehicle was tumbling, lost control and splashed into the sea", he said.

He further said ISRO would carry out a detailed analysis of what happened and it would take two to three days. Then the team would have to find out why it happened and then the scientists would have to do the necessary corrections and make the next flight successful, Radhakrishnan said.

"The ISRO has the necessary resilience to make the next mission successful. We will do it", the chairman asserted.

The ISRO was working on cryogenic engines from 1993 and this entire mission today was a test flight. There were three objectives. The first was to test the cryogenic upper stage. "This is part of development technology. We have to work with it and team ISRO will do it", he said.

Asked to comment on his initial observation that the vernier engines had failed to ignite, he said the vernier engines used alongwith the main engine was for control of the vehicle. As soon as the vehicle lost control and started tumbling, it was assumed that the vernier engines had failed to ignite.

"As far as the cryogenic engine is concerned, we have to look at it. I do not want to make further guess without analysis", he said.

When it was pointed out that the mission using PSLV vehicle continue to be successful after a few failures in the beginning, while this is the second failure for GSLV in six flights, he said there was no major difference in the design of both the vehicles.