On April 18, India’s first developmental flight of geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV-DI) blasted off successfully from the Andhra Pradesh coastal town of Sriharikota, carrying the country into an elite club of nations and into a multi-billion-dollar commercial satellite launch business. Exactly 1040 seconds after take off from the Sriharikota high-altitude range, the spacecraft hurled the experimental communications satellite GSAT-I into orbit. The 401-tonne, 49.1-metre tall spacecraft carrying the 1540-kg experimental satellite, lifted off from the launch pad at 3.45 pm. The vehicle soared into the clear sky in a "perfect blast-off" much to the relief and excitement of the entire ISRO team which was waiting till the last second before the lift-off. "This was the longest seventeen minutes in our lives. It was also the most challenging and exciting. Words cannot describe our feelings", said Dr K Kasturirangan, Chairman, ISRO, moments after the launch. "The velocity and the trajectory of the vehicle were exactly as planned", he added.

There was tension in the air at Sriharikota Range (SHAR), and on the faces of engineers, scientists, technicians and former space managers who came to watch the launch. The aborted March 28 launch was at the back of their minds. ISRO staff climbed onto rooftops while local people watched from all vantage points including palm-tree tops, as second crucial phase approached.

At 4.6 seconds to count zero, as ISRO personnel waited with bated breath, eyes glued to the computers in front them, each of four liquid strap-on stages carrying 40 tonnes of propellants was ignited. This time there was no thrust problem. The personnel at the Mission Control heaved a collective sigh of relief after confirming the normal performance of the liquid stages. The Automatic Launch Sequence had given the go-ahead.

The hold system was released one second before lift-off and zero count. The mammoth 125-tonne solid stage was ignited. Cheers and claps drowned the voices at Mission Control and the centre as the GSLV blazed into the afternoon sky. This time the machine held on; the first stage burned a full 100 seconds while the liquid propulsion strap-on stages continued their thrust up to 162 seconds.

Altitude 75 km. Velocity 2.63 km per second. The first stage separated, bringing in more cheers. The second stage ignited as planned, 1.6 seconds before the first stage burn-out. More anxious faces and after 147 very long seconds, the vehicle kept course and reached 126 km at 5.18 km per second. Then came the most crucial phase - ignition of the untested cryogenic state. But telemetry data from Port Blair and Indonesia indicated that all was well; after separation of the second stage at 314 seconds from lift-off, the Russian cryogenic stage was ignited.

Carrying 12.5 tonnes of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen, the stage burned for 693 seconds taking the satellite and vehicle equipment bay to an altitude of 181 km. It was separated some 5,000 km from the launchpad, Sriharikota, and re-oriented to avoid any collision with the satellite. Seventeen minutes after lift off, GSAT-I was successfully placed in an orbit of 181 km perigee and an apogee of 32,051 km with an orbit inclination of 19.2 degree with respect to the equator.

The successful launch of the GSL V-1 marks the maturing of India’s space launch capabilities. Launching a massive 300 tonne plus 40-metre high rocket tens of thousands of kilometres into space and injecting a satellite with such precision that it will go around the earth at the same rate as the earth to stay overhead, is no mean task. India becomes one of the five countries which have the capacity to do this. This means an access to a launch vehicle market that is estimated at 3 billion dollar per annum currently. It also means an ability to put up Indian satellite of the INSAT class at a much cheaper cost. Currently, such satellites that provide transponders for communications and TV channels are launched by Arianspace, the European consortium or the Russians.

While civilian uses are the ones that are most talked about, India needs an autonomous space launch capability most for military reasons, not for offensive purposes which are banned, but for surveillance and communications. So far India has not been active enough in using outer space for military uses. The Armed Forces use IRS satellite for surveillance, but this is a poor substitute as this satellite is designed for civil application. What the Armed Forces need is a dedicated satellite which can provide them imagery of a particular region on demand and the ability to launch low-earth satellites for detailed surveillance in times of crisis. Such launches cannot be ‘procured’ in the international market. Beyond surveillance and communications, the GSLV-1 and its predecessor, PSLV, also signal India’s ability to build long-range intercontinental missiles.

There appears to have been some minor under-performance in the geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV) launched on April 18. Nevertheless, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) believes that it can ensure that the GSAT-1 satellite meets its design life of three years.