* Astronomy

"A false alarm created the problem" which led to the stopping of the full-duration cryogenic stage test soon after it began on January 19 at the Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) at Mahendragiri, near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) officials.

Two sensors monitoring the pressure and temperature of the liquid hydrogen passage of the thrust chamber in the cryogenic engine malfunctioned and gave "fictitious readings" because they were in the open mode, they said. (The sensors should have been in the closed mode). They described it as "a minor problem" and are confident that the long-duration test for 720 seconds would be conducted in two weeks.

The ISRO is getting ready for the recovery of the Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE) on Monday morning.

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