The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has announced that its GSLV2 CUSP rocket on its GSLV-D2 flight has successfully launched the GSAT-14 communications satellite for India. The launch occured at 1048 GMT from the Sriharkota launch site in India on 5 January 2014. The rocket uses an indigenously built cryogenic third stage using liquid hydrogen and LOX (Liquid Oxygen) as propellants.
The GSAT-14 satellite was also indigenously built and uses the ISRO-built I-2K bus design.
GSLV D5 launch. Courtesy: ISRO
While ISRO’s PSLV rocket family is now regarded as a reliable launch vehicle, even ISRO appreciated that its GLSV launch vehicle has demonstrated poor launch reliability. Before the flight, the Seradata SpaceTrak launch and satellite database registers 5 failures out of seven attempts. As such ISRO’s official twitter feed noted: “#ISRO’s naughty boy, #GSLV, decides to obey the flight profile. The supercool Cryo engine delivers #GSAT-14 with remarkable precision.”
