ISRO chief elated, says GSLV-FO4 mission was highly dramatic

Sriharikota, Sep 2 (UNI) Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman G Madhavan Nair today said the GSLV-FO4 mission to launch the INSAT-4CR communications satellite was highly dramatic.

''We have really gone to the mill. On one side we were very anxious because of last year's failure, he said addressing a press conference after the successful launch.

''We conducted a series of tests, retests, validation and verification. We have targeted the mission on September 1. The day we decided to move the vehicle from the integrated bay to the launch pad there were hevay winds, thunder and lightning,'' he said.

Dr Nair said the mission team had a miserable experience for the next few days as every night there were heavy rains accompanied by lightning and thunder.

''We virutally lost 40 hrs in the countdown sequence. But full credit to the ISRO team who rose to the occasion'', an elated Dr Nair said.

He said the countdown was very smooth. Before the computer stopped it 15 secs before 1621 hrs because they got a red indication regarding the readiness of the cryo stage. The launch was put on hold by the computer and the vehicle was brought to the safe condition.

''The computers in the ground station received red signal on the readiness of the cryo stage. We deciphered all the data. The corrective action took some time. But within two hours all corrections were carried out. It was a very good and majestic take off but in between our hearts stopped several times when the signals stoped on the screen'', he said.

He said the mission team was anxious about the condition of the vehicle because breaks came twice in the cryo stage, but luckily the signal came back and the flight trajectory was fine.

The launch was a complete success. The failure analysis committee which went into last year's failed mission had done a very good job in identifying the problem and carrying out simulation and validation tests, Dr Nair said.

'' We were all anxious but I am happy to say we are over it. Its a good success. This is the third successful mission in nine months and we were well on course of our target of four to five missions in a year'', he observed.

To a question whether he had any second thoughts before going ahead with the launch, he said ''we know what had happened. We were very careful and to our surprise, the second time we tried, the signal came correctly and we went ahead with the launch.'' He said there was no cost escalation compared to last year's failed mission.

We are planning two more PSLV launches. Details are yet to be worked out,'' he disclosed.

About the Chandrayan mission, Dr Nair said it was progressing well. ''The equipments have arrived. We have started building the satellite and the ground station. We will be able to meet the target of launching the mision before the middle of next year'', he added.

Earlier, a minute's silence was observed to mourn the passing away of ISRO Director, Publications and Public Relations, S Krishnamoorthy who succembed to injuries sustained in a road accident recently.

UNI