Necessity as well as deprivation is the mother of invention. India was deprived of cryogenic technology by Russia in 1992 under US pressure (20 years ago). Well, if a ball or anything is thrown up in the air, it comes down after attaining a certain height because of gravitational pull of the earth. But when something is thrown up in the air with a very high speed of 12.5 Km per second, it escapes the gravitational pull of the earth and is permanently sent into space. 

 

The vehicle that is used to go at such high speeds is called as Rocket. In space sciences, a rocket is the vehicle that carries satellites and puts them into earth’s orbit. Once satellites are in the orbit, they are used for various purpose like mobile communication, weather forecasting etc.

 

In the parlance of space science, rockets are called launch vehicles. A launch vehicle that goes up and puts a geo-synchronous satellite (GSAT) into space is called as Geo-Synchronous Launch Vehicle (GSLV). GSLV needs a lot of special kind of fuel burning in many stages to attain high speeds in excess of 12.5 km per second.

 

GSLV uses major components that are already proven in the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) launchers in the form of the S125/S139 solid booster and the liquid-fueled Vikas engine. The third stage was procured from Russian company Glavcosmos based on an agreement signed in 1991. Russia backed out of the deal after US sanctions were imposed in May 1992. ISRO started the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project in April 1994 and began developing its own cryogenic stage.

 

The GSLV is a three stage/engine rocket. The core of first stage is fired with solid fuel while the four strap-on motors by liquid fuel. The second is the liquid fuel and the third is the cryogenic engine. A cryogenic engine is more efficient as it provides more thrust for every kilogram of propellant burnt as compared to solid or liquid fuel. 

 

GSLV D5 was the first mission of GSLV during the last four years after two such rockets failed in 2010.One of the GSLV rockets was launched with Indian cryogenic engine and the other one with a Russian engine. The latest GSLV D5 costing Rs.365 crore had twin purpose - to flight test the cryogenic engine designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), and to put in orbit communication satellite GSAT-14.

 

For the country, ISRO perfecting the cryogenic engine technology is crucial as by launching communication satellites by itself it can help save precious foreign exchange. Currently, ISRO puts its heavy communication satellites into space by hiring services of European space agency Ariane. ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan has told IANS that the country pays around $85-90 million or around Rs.500 crore as launch fee for sending up a 3.5-tonne communication satellite. The cost of satellite is separate. He said the cost of GSLV is Rs.220 crore.

 

The ISRO can send smaller communication satellites - weighing around two tonnes - till such time it gets ready an advanced GSLV variant - GSLV-Mark III - that can lug satellites weighing around four tonnes.

 

ISRO has made every Indian proud by putting India into the elite list of few nations like USA, Russia among other few by perfecting the cryogenic technology at much lesser cost.