Isro scientists have remotely drained the fuels from the second stage and the indigenous cryogenic engine of GSLV-D5.
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CHENNAI: It was a tense night at the Sriharikota spaceport after a leak was detected in the liquid propellant tank of GSLV-D5 two hours before its scheduled launch at 4.50pm.
Isro scientists have remotely drained the fuels from the second stage and the indigenous cryogenic engine. Isro chairman K Radhakrishnan told TOI that the draining process was completed on Tuesday morning. "It's still not safe to go near the rocket because there could be fumes and other impurities in the air. We will move the vehicle to the assembly building on Sunday or Monday to ascertain the damage," he said.
The GSLV-D5 launch has been a much awaited milestone for the Indian Space Research Organisation as it uses an indigenous cryogenic engine. After the US imposed sanctions post Pokhran II in 1998, Russia, which was the sole supplier of cryogenic engine, refused to part with the technology, forcing India to accelerate its cryogenic engine project which started in the early 1990s. With six of the seven Russian cryogenic engines in Isro's custody being used up, India has no option but to develop its own to launch satellites weighing up to 5,000kg.
It is also vital for India's proposed manned mission to space.
Cryogenics, the science of extreme low temperatures, has remained a tricky technology to tame, with only the US, Russia, China, Japan and the European Space Agency mastering it. Isro's Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre in Mahendragiri in Tamil Nadu developed the indigenous engine which was to propel GSLV-D5 carrying telecommunication satellite GSAT-14 on Monday.
About two hours before the launch a camera caught the leak that appeared like a smoke coming out of the second stage of the rocket. "We don't know yet if the tank or any of the components was damaged. We will know by Monday," Radhakrishnan said. Asked if the rocket would have been destroyed in flight had the leak been not detected, the Isro chairman said the system would have anyway found it out before the launch. "We can't say if we would've lost the vehicle (if the leak was not detected)," he said.