Illustration of GSLV rocket. Photo: ISRO

WASHINGTON -- India's most advanced launch vehicle is being prepared for an end of the year first launch, the head of India's space program said last Thursday at a Washington, D.C. dinner. Dr. K. Kasturirangan, Chairman of India's Space Research Organization (ISRO), said that India's GSLV launcher was being prepared for an inaugural flight either in late December or early 2001. Final preparations would determine the selection of the exact launch date, Kasturirangan said. The first GSLV payload would be an Indian communications satellite design, he said.

The liquid fueled booster is India's most advanced launch vehicle, and the only variant that would be capable of orbiting communication satellites weighing up to 2 and a half tons to Geostationary orbit. The rocket is also being offered commercially as a satellite launcher by the Antrix commercial wing of ISRO.

The GSLV flight comes following four launches of India's smaller PSLV multi-staged booster, designed to orbit remote sensing satellites in polar or sun-synchronous flight paths. The last PSLV flight occurred on May 26, 1999 and lofted four satellites, India's first multi-satellite mission. The PSLV was declared commercially operational at that time. The vehicle would be used next to launch the next generation of INSAT sensing spacecraft.

No new commercial contracts for PSLV flights have been announced by Antrix this year. A commercial launch with a Belgium satellite in addition to an Indian remote sensing spacecraft has been sold.

The Indian launch vehicle development program has been hindered by western sanctions imposed following the 1998 nuclear weapons tests conducted by the Indian government. ISRO was also hit by U.S. technology exchange cutbacks following an exchange of technical assistance by Russian rocket engineers on the development program for the GSLV upper stage. That flight unit will use a cryogenic liquid rocket engine whose designs were aided by Russian assistance that violated the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) restrictions. India and Russia denied any such technical data violated the accords.

The GSLV would establish a commercial rocket in roughly the same class as the U.S. Delta 2 and European/French-led Starsem Soyuz/Ikar launching vehicles. Kasturirangan said that production of the boosters on an annual basis would not be high enough to impact commercial contracting of any launch service providers.

In its development history, Kasturirangan said that India had launched 30 satellites into space aboard 13 launches, mainly using launching vehicles of other countries. The space shuttle Ariane and Atlas boosters have been among those used to orbit Indian spacecraft.

Kasturirangan spoke at a dinner meeting held by the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Washington, D.C Thursday July 13th. Arrangements for the dinner were made by the Indian Embassy.

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