In a setback that some fear could delay Indias manned moon mission,one of ISROs communication satellites aboard a Geosynchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV) exploded mid-air on Saturday less than a minute after lift-off from the spaceport here and fell into the sea. GSAT-5P,carrying 24 C-band and 12 extended C-band transponders,aboard a homegrown vehicle GSLV F06 failed after the rocket veered from its flight path and broke into pieces. The destruct command was issued when the control and command signal failed to reach the activation system at the first stage itself,ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan told a press conference shortly after the aborted launch,the second in nine months in the Indian space programme. The satellite was meant for augmenting communication services currently provided by the Indian National Satellite System. Built at Rs 125 crore,it was to replace the INSAT-3E that was sent up in 2003. The rocket blasted-off at around 4 pm from the second launch pad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at the end of the 29-hour countdown but was hit by a snag in the first stage itself. I am extremely sorry to say that GSLV F06 mission has failed, he said. Taking the failure in his stride,the ISRO chief said space agency everywhere goes through such failures. We learn from failures and such failures lead to success. The second successive failure has raised questions over Indias ambitious project to send a manned mission to moon in 2013 and that there could be delays. However,former ISRO chief Kasturirangan did not appear to share this view. He said in his personal view the problem that failed Saturdays launch could be tracked and corrected. He did admit that the problem encountered had never been seen in the earlier 6 GSLV launches,but once it is tracked it can be corrected.
