Frontier India Current Affairs

Written on July 17, 2008 – 10:32 pm | by FICA |

India today gave its approval for funding of six GSLV operational flights (F11 to F16) at a total estimated cost of Rs. 1280.96 crores with a Foreign Exchange component of Rs. 272.90 crores. With the realization of six GSLV Operational flights ( 9F11 to F16 ) end-to-end capability to launch communication satellites will be available during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. The six flights (GSLV F11 –16) are expected to be realized during the time-frame 2010-1012.

GSLV after successfully completing the two demonstration flights attained the operational status during 2004. In its first operational flight, GSLV-F01 successfully launched 1950 kg EDUSAT satellite into Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO). More recently, during September 2007, GSLV in its F04 flight successfully carried a 2130 kg communication satellite, INSAT-4CR. GSLV in its operational series has so far completed three flights, of which two have been successful.

With four successful flights so far, GSLV is poised to launch a series of 2200-2400 kg class communication satellites during the eleventh Five-Year Plan period and beyond. The next mission aims at the launch of GSLV-D3 during early 2008, which will be the maiden flight of GSLV with indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage (CUS) and will carry the GSAT-4 satellite into GTO.

The development project for GSLV was approved during November 1990 at a cost of Rs. 1405.19 Crores towards meeting the indigenous launching capability for carrying 2 tonne class communication satellites into GTO. The project provided for the design, development and launch of three developmental flights viz., D1, D2 and D3.

The first version of GSLV (GSLV Mark-I) is a three-stage vehicle using solid and liquid stage for the first two stages and a procured cryogenic stage (CS) from Russia for the third stage. The first development flight, GSLV-D1 successfully launched a 1540 kg GSAT-1 into Geo Synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) during the year 2001. This was followed by D2 launch in 2003 which launched a 1824 kg GSAT-2 into GTO. With these two successful missions, GSLV was declared operational.

In the operational series, Government had approved for the realization of three GSLV flights (F01-F03) and additional procurement of long lead items for 3 more flights during April 2003 at a cost of Rs. 945 crores ( FE : Rs. 368.80 Crores). To cater to the increased demand of two GSLV’s per year for GTO mission in the 11th Five year Plan period, approval was obtained for realization of seven more vehicles (F04-F10) in December 2006 at a total cost of Rs. 1325 Crores ( FE : Rs. 311 Crores).

The INSAT and GSAT satellites being launched by operational flights have significantly augmented the INSAT system capacity for national development in the areas of communications, broadcasting, and developmental communications including telemedicine & tele-education.

The efforts so far have resulted in payload improvement from 1540 kg to 2150 through use of S139 solid core stage, high performance liquid engines, miniaturized avionics and mission optimization. Plans are afoot to increase the payload capability to 2400 kg in subsequent flight through the use of indigenous Cryogenic Upper Stage.

Presently, the Indian National Satellite (INSAT) system has 211 transponders and the demand for transponders by end of 11th Plan is expected to be about 500. An assessment of national requirement of transponders meteorological and navigational services, specialized customer needs, opportunities for bilateral / international cooperation as well as potential commercial possibilities calls for launch of 2 GSLV’s per year during the 11th Five Year Plan period and beyond. During the 11th Plan period and beyond, based on the demand profile of transponders, it is envisaged to build and launch 12 GSAT series of satellites onboard the current version of GSLV. Out of this, approval already exists for 6 GSLVs in the current GSLV operational programe, GSLV F1 to F10. Hence, it is proposed to undertake 6 additional GSLV operational flights ( GSLV F11 to F16), to meet the 11th Plan demand.