Editorial February 2014

 EDITORIAL                                                              

                       Thota Hanumaiah

INDIA INVENTED INDIGENOUS CRYOGENIC ENGINE AND SUCCESSFULLY LAUNCHED GSLV D5 ROCKET INTO SPACE.   

THE INDIAN SCIENTISTS OVERCOME TWO DECADES OF STRUGGLE AND A TECHNICAL EMBARGO TO ATTAIN CRYOGENIC SUCCESS.

 Finally, on 05-01-2014, after more than two decades of toil and leaving no stone unturned, India has been able to successfully fire an indigenous cryogenic engine to launch GSLV D-5 rocket to inject the GSAT-14 communication satellite into the orbit.  Thereby INDIA joined the elite cryogenic club, which includes USA, RUSSIA, JAPAN, FRANCE and CHINA. The launch has been so precise that the satellite was put just 40 meters within the 179 km perigee and only 50 km of the 36,000 km apogee of geosynchronous orbit. The final station acquisition manoeuvre was successfully completed to place the GSAT-14 satellite in its designated orbital slot of 74 degrees east longitude, on January 18, 2014.

 

Mastering cryogenic engine technology which involves using liquid hydrogen (LH2) below minus 253 degrees Celsius and liquid oxygen (LOX) below minus 183 degrees Celsius has been a difficult task and a tricky feat. India had originally reached an agreement with Soviet Russia to the effect that the soviet Russia would sell India three cryogenic engines and transfer technology to India to develop and produce subsequent engines on its own. This had to come into effect in the year 1991, but by then soviet Russia collapsed. At that time, the USA openly came out   against the interests of India and mounted enormous pressure on Russia to scrap the deal with India on the grounds that such technology transfer violated the Missile Technology Control Regime because it could also be used for inter-continental ballistic missiles. Then the Russia amended the agreement to outright sale of seven fully made cryogenic engines, without transfer of technology. The Indian space research organisation (ISRO) had no option except to accept the engines alone without technology transfer, but also accepted the challenge to indigenously develop the cryogenic engine.

 

   Our scientists’ dedication, untiring efforts and sacrifices have led to the invention of indigenous cryogenic engine which began a new era of technical and commercial viability for Indian space missions. As a result, ISRO has been able to successfully fire an indigenous cryogenic engine to launch GSLV D5 rocket to inject the GSAT-14 communication satellite into the orbit, on January 5, 2014.

 

 All credit goes to our scientists for their hard work and dedication. We are proud of them.

                                                             Thota Hanumaih.