Jinxed 13th flight from Sriharikota after 12 successful launches

Bangalore, July 10 (UNI) The jinxed GSLV-F02 that went off the projected path, exploded and met a watery grave in the Bay of Bengal today, was the 13th flight from the Satish Dhawan Spaceport Centre after a string of dozen successful flights since the May 1994 flight of the second generation Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle.

It was the first failure of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) in four flights since the fourth generation launch vehicle blasted off for the first time from the Indian Spaceport in 2001.

Today's misfired launch was the fifth failed launch from Sriharikota ever since the Satellite Launch Vehicle programme started with the SLV-3 series way back in 1979 when the first experimental flight of SLV-3 with a Rohini Technological Payload failed on August 10, 1979.

The last failure from the Indian Spaceport was on September 20, 1993, when the first developmental flight of PSLV failed to place a remote sensing satellite--IRS-1E in orbit. The vehicle, with a capability to put a 1000 kg satellite in space, developed complications about five minutes after the blast off due to a software error.

The Failure Analysis Committee said the failure was due to a software error in pitch control loop of the guidance and control processor leading to disturbances during the transition between second and third stages.

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