A defect in a device meant to regulate propellant flow led to malfunctioning in the fourth strap-on stage, causing the failure of the July 10 GSLV mission that was to put India's heaviest satellite so far into orbit, a report of the 15-member Failure Analysis Committee said.
The committee, headed by senior Isro scientist K Narayana, made the report public on Wednesday in the presence of Isro chairman G Madhavan Nair and a host of other senior Isro officials from around the country. The device was made by a private company that supplies parts to Isro. Outlining the findings and factors that caused the GSLV crash, Nair told reporters the device in question was a propellant regulator. The diameter of the propellant regulator, he said, exceeded design specification by 1 mm. The product delivered was 17 mm in diameter instead of 16 mm. This gap proved fatal for the GSLV mission, the chairman explained. As the regulator was bigger, there was a larger flow of propellant into a gas generator.
ISRO to release details of GSLV-F02 failure today. The Failure Analysis Committee report on the unsuccessful mission of GSLV-F02 on July 10 has been submitted to ISRO by Commitee head K Narayana, former Director of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.
ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair will announce the details of the failure and recommend necessary remedial measures by the FAC at a press conference today.
After the recent failure of the launch vehicle GSLV-F02 carrying INSAT-4C, Government announced that the next launch of a rebuilt satellite would take place within one year.
A failure analysis committee has been set up with experts from the ISRO, academia and National Research Laboratory to ascertain the causes of the failure and it would submit its report within one month. Corrective measures would be formulated after the committee submits its findings.
A big exercise is under way to recover the debris of the GSLV-F02 (Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) from the Bay of Bengal off Sriharikota coast. Divers employed by the Department of Ocean Development (DoOD) have already recovered one of the strap-on motors of the GSLV-F02, which plunged into the sea on July 10. But this is not the strap-on engine, which malfunctioned and led to the failure of the flight from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre from Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh.
Two DoOD vessels, Sagar Purvi and Sagar Kanya, are using ultrasonic equipment to "sound" the seabed and recover the debris.
The launch of the geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle, GSLV-F02, ended in failure when it crashed into the Bay of Bengal about 60 seconds after take-off at 5.38 p.m. on Monday.
The Range Safety Officer at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre pressed the "destruct" button to prevent debris from falling on land and injuring people. The vehicle was destroyed after its trajectory went beyond the normal limits.
After 40 seconds of lift-off, there was a divergence of 10 degrees of angular error in the trajectory of the vehicle. Four degrees of angular error is the normal limit.
The problem developed during the first stage. Pressure in one of the four strap-on motors dropped to zero. Though the other three strap-on motors performed well, control of the vehicle became an issue.
India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-F02), with INSAT-4C on board, was launched from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR), Sriharihota today (July 10, 2006). The lift-off took place at 5:38 p.m. IST (12:10 GMT). However, GSLV-F02 could not complete the mission. The detailed analysis of the data received from the vehicle is being analysed to pinpoint the exact reasons.
The rocket launch, from Sriharikota launch site in the Bay of Bengal, was put on an unscheduled hold twice during the day due to technical problems. There was a leak in the relief valve, leading to some leakage of the cryogenic propellant.
"We isolated the valve and took corrective action" - G Madhavan Nair, ISRO Chairman.
The chairman said the trajectory of the launch vehicle deviated in the fourth or fifth second after the launch. The vehicle, after deviation, exploded and fell in the Bay of Bengal.
A rocket carrying INSAT-4C, India's heaviest satellite disintegrated in a ball of smoke and flame seconds after lift-off Monday, dealing a crippling blow to the country's ambitious space programme.
The 49-metre rocket was launched at 12:05 GMT but veered off course and disintegrated about 30 seconds later.
"A mishap happened in the first stage of the separation and it will be some time before we know what went wrong. We have to analyse the sequence of events to see what happened."- Madhavan Nair, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) mission chief.
Debris from the satellite fell into the Bay of Bengal