India’s ambition to join the elite club of space nations stalled last week
when the maiden flight of its new 400-tonne Geosynchronous Satellite Launch
Vehicle (GSLV) was aborted on the launch pad. The four liquid-fuel strap-on
boosters ignited as scheduled 4.6 seconds before lift-off but one of the
boosters did not develop sufficient thrust. “So the solid stage did not get
ignited,” says Krishnaswamy Kasturirangan, head of the Indian Space Research
Organisation. The GSLV is the product of a 10-year, $305 million
programme and was designed to place 2-tonne satellites into geostationary
orbit.
To continue reading, today with our introductory offers
Advertisement
More from New ÒÁÈ˾þÃ
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending New ÒÁÈ˾þà articles
1
Fully autonomous drones have killed human soldiers for the first time
2
Understanding anorexia’s grip on the brain could unlock new therapies
3
El Niño has started and the weather could get weird
4
What is a ‘normal’ memory slowdown, and when should I worry?
5
Mysterious ‘cold blob’ in the Atlantic suggests the AMOC is weakening
6
Ditching cigarettes for vapes may curb the cancer benefits of quitting
7
Why we should all take quantum physics extremely personally
8
Millions of fossil whale bones found in deep-ocean ‘necropolis’
9
Explore the mind-bending and paradoxical art of M C. Escher
10
Wolves seen hunting European bison in rare camera-trap recording
