<p>“The countdown began around 11:30 am for the GSLV-D3 and things are proceeding well,” an ISRO spokesman told Deccan Herald. The launch has been fixed for 4:27 pm on Thursday from the new launch pad at Sriharikota, sources said.<br /><br />Two key features during the countdown are the filling of the liquid propellant and the cryogenic propellant into the rocket which have already begun, sources said.<br />The GSLV-D3 is slated to launch a 2,220 kg class GSAT-4 state-of-the-art satellite that carries communication and navigation payloads into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). This orbit lies at a height of 36,000 km over the equator. <br /><br />This is the maiden flight of GSLV in which a wholly indigenously built cryogenic upper stage engine, developed at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, is used.<br /><br />Envisaged mainly as a “technology demonstrator” for advanced satellite communications, GSAT-4 to be put into the orbit would enable the testing of many future communications satellite technologies.<br /><br />As the second launch pad at Sriharikota is agog with tense expectation, the 50-metre tall GSLV-D3 presents a majestic profile with a lift-off mass of 416 tonnes. It is a three-stage vehicle with solid, liquid and cryogenic stages.<br />DH News Service</p>
<p>“The countdown began around 11:30 am for the GSLV-D3 and things are proceeding well,” an ISRO spokesman told Deccan Herald. The launch has been fixed for 4:27 pm on Thursday from the new launch pad at Sriharikota, sources said.<br /><br />Two key features during the countdown are the filling of the liquid propellant and the cryogenic propellant into the rocket which have already begun, sources said.<br />The GSLV-D3 is slated to launch a 2,220 kg class GSAT-4 state-of-the-art satellite that carries communication and navigation payloads into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). This orbit lies at a height of 36,000 km over the equator. <br /><br />This is the maiden flight of GSLV in which a wholly indigenously built cryogenic upper stage engine, developed at ISRO’s Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre at Mahendragiri near Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu, is used.<br /><br />Envisaged mainly as a “technology demonstrator” for advanced satellite communications, GSAT-4 to be put into the orbit would enable the testing of many future communications satellite technologies.<br /><br />As the second launch pad at Sriharikota is agog with tense expectation, the 50-metre tall GSLV-D3 presents a majestic profile with a lift-off mass of 416 tonnes. It is a three-stage vehicle with solid, liquid and cryogenic stages.<br />DH News Service</p>
