ISRO to launch GSLV Mark III next month

​Hyderabad: India will launch Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark III with indigenously developed cryogenic engine next month, Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) chairman A S Kiran Kumar said on Thursday.

Addressing a gathering at Osmania University as part of the centenary celebrations, Kiran Kumar said that liquid oxygen and hydrogen are used in the cryogenic engine that not only provides maximum thrust but also reduces cost. It would weigh 400 kg, carrying one payload.

Explaining the genesis of ISRO, Kiran Kumar said that in the 1960s it was a huge task to convince fishermen in the southernmost corner of the country, at Thumba near Trivandrum to make way for a rocket launching centre and it took a church priest finally to convince them with a promise that it would benefit society a great deal.

Now, more than Rs 10,000 crore is saved by issuing alerts to fishermen by informing them the exact location of fish and also on when to venture into the sea, thereby saving lives, he said.

Five more communication satellites would be launched this year, starting with two satellites next month, Kiran Kumar said, adding that India has a self reliant space infrastructure and has made a mark for itself in the space faring nations.

“With 149 missions, including 87 satellites put into orbit and collaborating with 23 different countries, India has come a long way since its first rocket launch on November 23, 1963 from Thumba,” he added.

The experiments with space is not elitist but a necessity, remarked Kiran Kumar and explained the use of space technology in the fields of navigation, atmospheric disturbance, Earth Observation, surface water mapping and a host of other uses.