PSLV@17

IN the normal course, the launch of the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) on Wednesday should have been a routine affair, considering that 16 other launches before it had been successful. In fact, only the first launch before that – way back in 1993 – was a failure and since then PSLV had become the workhorse of ISRO. What made every scientist watch the launch with bated breath was the fact that the last two launches of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) last year were failures and had anything gone wrong with the PSLV as well, it would have meant a serious loss of face. However, nothing of that sort happened and the PSLV put three satellites in orbit in a copybook fashion, with Director of the Liquid Propulsions Systems of ISRO S. Ramakrishnan describing the success as a “sweet seventeen” (referring to the 17th successful launch).

This morale-booster will hopefully help ISRO headed by K. Radhakrishnan in removing the glitches in the GSLV – which can carry much heavier payloads into the orbit. In the GSLV, the top two stages of the PSLV have been replaced with a cryogenic stage and the latter’s six solid-propellant strap-ons have been replaced with four Vikas-engine based ones. What must be remembered is that the first two launches of the Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle (ASLV) in late 1980s were also failures, but contributed considerably to the success of the PSLV which followed.
The PSLV will provide vital information about the natural resources, the state of snowcap and glaciers, changes in coastal areas and water bodies, among other inputs. It is a “global mission” indeed, considering that the remote-sensing images of the Resourcesat-2 satellite that it has put in orbit would be used by countries across the world. The PSLV is now the most reliable and cost-effective rocket in the world. Three more launches of it are scheduled this year, to be followed by a launch of the GSLV.