GSLV- culprit identified
By agencies   |   Thursday, 07 September 2006, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE : The culprit to the failure of the GSLV-F02 has been spotted by the Indian Space Research Organization(ISRO). Aimed at giving a fillip to Direct-to-Home television, INSAT 4C crashed as one of the four liquid propellant strap-on stages failed resulting in the vehicle breaking up at 62 seconds after lift-off. The debris fell into the Bay of Bengal. Addressing the press, Department of Space Secretary and ISRO Chairman, G. Madhavan Nair, stated that a faulty regulator in one of the four strap-on engines brought it down. It has been noted as the cause that led to the failure of GSLV on July 10th. Seven of the eight supplied regulators worked fine. “Only one failed. We had no reason to believe that a regulator supplied by a manufacturer with a good track record would fail." Stating that the manufacturer would not be blacklisted, Nair added, “Blacklisting would not be the answer at a time when ISRO had been trying to build up an industry base for ten years and beginning to lean on it so that it could focus on research; the penalty clause specified in the agreement will be applied to make sure that the industry provides components to the specification henceforth." Fourth in the GSLV series, the defect was "inadvertent" and led to inadequate thrust; loss of the Insat-4C satellite along with the launcher that cost them over $62,500,000 (Rs 250 core). Nair said that this type of defect could happen with GSLV as some of the liquid engines have a dozen modules that cannot be tested on ground but only in flight. “We are not justifying the failure, which should not have happened, but we have taken it as a serious issue," Nair said. A report made by a 15-member Failure Analysis Committee was also released with key aspects addressing what went wrong with the home launch from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Center. A greater level of scrutiny is being expected for the PSLV due in October. It has also set the next GSLV launch for June 2007. Apart from additional tests for engine control and very strict audit of components and sub-systems right from origin through the cycle, ISRO has held meetings with all its vendors stressing absolute quality control.

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