Countdown for GSLV Mark III begins

All eyes are set on the launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III or GSLV Mark III experimental sub-orbital flight as the 24-and-a-half hour countdown began on Wednesday morning.

After a successful 9 hour 30 minutes launch rehearsal of the GSLV Mark III experimental sub-orbital flight, mission readiness review along with the launch authorization board has given the go ahead for the satellite mission on 18 December at 9:30am. All the data was checked for one last time in the mission readiness review on 16 December.

The experimental flight aims at validating the aerodynamic and complex features of the launcher which cannot be conclusively tested on ground. It will also carry an unmanned crew vehicle which will eventually carry Indian astronauts to space.

In this sub-orbital flight, the launcher will climb to an altitude of about 125km, at which altitude a CARE (Crew-module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment) module is planned to be injected.

The cup cake-shaped unmanned crew module, which is the size of a small bedroom, is meant to accommodate three people. This module is meant to validate a number of technologies developed under the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (Isro’s) critical technologies for human spaceflight programme.

This crew module will be dropped from that flight after which it will splashdown in the Bay of Bengal using parachutes, and will then be recovered by the Indian Navy and Coastguard.

In January, Isro had successfully launched a Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV D5) with an indigenous cryogenic engine from the spaceport of Satish Dhawan Space Centre. While in its experimental flight GSLV Mark III will carry a passive cryogenic stage, Isro chief K. Radhakrishnan has said that it will be flight-ready in the next two years when it will be capable of launching satellites that weigh between 4.5 and 5 tonnes, thus reducing India’s dependence on Arianne Space in French Guinea for launching heavy satellites.

The vehicle will have multi-mission launch capability for Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit, Polar and intermediate circular orbits. GSLV-Mk III is designed to be a three-stage vehicle, 42.4 metre tall with a lift-off weight of 630 tonnes. First stage comprises two identical S200 Large Solid Boosters (LSBs) with 200 tonne solid propellant, that are strapped on to the second stage, the L110 re-startable liquid stage. The third stage is the cryogenic stage.