The launch has been delayed by 40 minutes; lift off expected at 4:50 p.m.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's GSLV-F05 rocket, carrying the INSAT-3DR advanced weather satellite, will lift off from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 4.50 p.m. on Thursday.
The rocket, with the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage as its fourth stage, will place the satellite, weighing 2,211-kg, in the Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
On being placed in the intended orbit, INSAT-3DR would use its own propulsion system to reach its final geosynchronous orbital home and be stationed at 74 deg East longitude, ISRO said.
The satellite is expected to provide a variety of meteorological services to the country.
Latest updates:
3.43 p.m.: GSLV F05 launch has been delayed by 40 minutes, our correspondent T.K. Rohit reports.
3.37 p.m.: The country started on the GSLV rocket plan in the late 1980s and early 1990s so as to be able to put its 2,000-kg communication satellites to geosynchronous orbits at 36,000 km in space from its own soil. It suffered a setback from geopolitics combined with high-technology commerce: Russia, at the behest of the USA, went back on a deal to transfer critical cryogenic technology for the last and crucial stage of the rocket. Starting in the mid-1990s, ISRO has developed its own cryo engine and has tested it on three vehicles since 2010.
Twenty years on, that old dream vehicle is about to become ready for regular work. On the eve of its flight carrying the weather satellite INSAT-3DR, A.S.Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman and the fifth to preside over the GSLV programme, speaks to Madhumathi D.S. about what it means to our country.
The Indian Space Research Organisation's GSLV-F05 rocket, carrying the INSAT-3DR advanced weather satellite, will lift off from the Second Launch Pad of the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at 4.50 p.m. on Thursday.
The rocket, with the indigenously developed cryogenic upper stage as its fourth stage, will place the satellite, weighing 2,211-kg, in the Geostationary Transfer Orbit.
On being placed in the intended orbit, INSAT-3DR would use its own propulsion system to reach its final geosynchronous orbital home and be stationed at 74 deg East longitude, ISRO said.
The satellite is expected to provide a variety of meteorological services to the country.
Latest updates:
3.43 p.m.: GSLV F05 launch has been delayed by 40 minutes, our correspondent T.K. Rohit reports.
3.37 p.m.: The country started on the GSLV rocket plan in the late 1980s and early 1990s so as to be able to put its 2,000-kg communication satellites to geosynchronous orbits at 36,000 km in space from its own soil. It suffered a setback from geopolitics combined with high-technology commerce: Russia, at the behest of the USA, went back on a deal to transfer critical cryogenic technology for the last and crucial stage of the rocket. Starting in the mid-1990s, ISRO has developed its own cryo engine and has tested it on three vehicles since 2010.
Twenty years on, that old dream vehicle is about to become ready for regular work. On the eve of its flight carrying the weather satellite INSAT-3DR, A.S.Kiran Kumar, ISRO Chairman and the fifth to preside over the GSLV programme, speaks to Madhumathi D.S. about what it means to our country.