ISRO scanning data for GSLV flop

Scientists and technical experts led by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman, Dr K Radhakrishnan on Sunday continued to analyse the prodigious data following Saturday’s failure of the ‘GSLV-FO6’ mission from Sriharikota.

For the second day running, all those involved in the launch vehicle of the seventh flight of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), which split into two parts 50 seconds after take-off from the Satish Dhawan Spaceport there on Saturday evening, were battling to get at its root cause, S Satish, spokesperson for ISRO told Deccan Herald from Bangalore.

The ‘snapping of connectors’, as outlined by Radhakrishnan, was responsible for the disaster, he reiterated. Prima facie “it appears a simple problem, but the real challenge is to find out how and why it happened,” Satish said, without elaborating. The rocket was carrying India’s latest communication satellite ‘GSAT-5P’, but the entire payload crashed into sea.

A Failure Analysis Committee (FAC), on the lines of one appointed for the previous GSLV flight with India’s first indigenous cryogenic engine that had also failed in April this year, was expected to be appointed in the next two to three days, he said.

“In space science and rocketry, you have to learn from failures and any failure is because of new problems,” said Satish, to remarks by some scientists that this was a kind of problem ISRO had faced for the first time.

He did not agree with some scientists who blamed the failure on alleged “carelessness” of some ISRO ground staff at Sriharikota. The review meeting was in progress and it was not possible to say anything more, added Satish. However, he categorically denied impressions that Saturday’s debacle had ‘demoralised’ the ISRO scientists.