INDIA: Satellite Rocket Failure Affects Likely ICBM Plans

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Mar 29 2001 (IPS) - The failure of India’s geo-stationary satellite launching rocket has not only delayed plans to enter the lucrative satellite launch market, but also to acquire inter-continental ballistic missile (ICBM) capability.

If successful, Wednesday’s aborted test launch of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) would have put India in a select group of nations capable of launching heavy communication satellites.

So far only the United States, the European Space Agency, Japan, Russia and China have GSLVs.

Powered by cryogenic (super cold fuel) engines, it would also make it possible to develop ICBMs, say experts.

According to former former army general V.R. Raghavan, a leading media commentator on strategic affairs, the GSLV was proof that it could work on an ICBM.

Defence analyst Maroof Raza said that the main reason behind U.S. attempts to prevent India from acquiring cryogenic engine technology from Russia, was to stop from putting into space satellites that could guide ICBMs.

“There is a thin line between scientific and military uses of cryogenic engines,” he said.

India is already in the business of commercially launching other countries’ satellites on its smaller and highly successful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rockets.

The PSLV successfully launched communication satellites for Germany and South Korea in the year 1999.

India also builds its own communication and remote sensing satellites and currently operates three geo-stationary satellites, which were launched by the European agency Arianspace.

Had the GSLV launch, which cost 300 million dollars, been successful, it would have meant an entry for the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) into the lucrative satellite launch market for heavy satellites.

ISRO’s commercial arm, Antrix Corporation, already markets hardware and space services and does business in remote sensing data with agencies like Space Images Inc. of the United States.

India’s GSLV project dates back to the days when it had a cosy military relationship with the former Soviet Union, its main supplier of arms and technology through the Cold War years.

Those plans received a setback eight years ago when the United States declared that a deal to transfer Russian cryogenic engines and technology for its manufacture, violated the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) of which Russia was a member.

The MTCR is an informal, non-treaty association of countries led by the United States and meant to limit the spread of missiles and missile technology.

Russia was allowed to sell a few rocket engines to India, but was forced to halt technology transfer. India then declared that it would develop its own cryogenic engines.

India has been testing indigenously-built cryogenic engines for the last two years at a liquid propulsion test facility at Mahendragiri in southern Tamil Nadu state.

Many analysts think that commercial motives prompted the United States to stop the Russian cryogenic engine transfers to India.

They point out that General Dynamic — the U.S. aircraft manufacturer — was also bidding to supply cryogenic engines to ISRO, but lost the deal to Russian space agency Glavkosmos.

Wednesday’s aborted launch did no damage to the Russian-built cryogenic engine.

K. Kasturirangan, the ISRO chief told reporters at the launch facility at Sriharikota on the eastern coast, that the launch was only postponed because of a hitch in one of the GSLV’s four strap-on engines.

“The safety mechanism ensured that the vehicle is safe,” he said.

On-board computers aborted the launch after detecting insufficient pressure build-up by one of the four strap-on motors of the three- stage, 161-foot rocket, which was carrying a 1,540 kg geo-stationery satellite.

The third stage of the rocket, powered by hydrogen and oxygen stored in liquid form, under cryogenic conditions, was to have placed the satellite in an elliptical geosynchronous transfer orbit.

Geo-stationary satellites are placed 36,000 km above the earth and moving in time with the earth’s rotation, appear stationary from the earth.

Though ISRO officials did not say when the next test launch of the GSLV would take place, they added that so far, no serious defect has been detected in the rocket.

Leading science writer R. Ramachandran said he expected the next GSLV test launch to take place in between one and six months time.