The flag-waving and cheering spectators who had gathered in Sriharikota on Monday to witness the launch of Cha... Read More

SRIHARIKOTA: The stalling of Chandrayaan-2 on Monday due to a leak in the cryogenic engine of GSLV-MkIII has put a question mark over Indian Space Research Organisation ’s future missions, including Gaganyaan. The manned mission slated for 2022 and missions to Sun (2020) and Venus (2023) are all dependent on the same rocket which now needs to be fixed.

GSLV-MkIII is called Isro’s ‘ Bahubali ,’ as it can lift up to four tonnes. The earlier versions of GSLVs and the most successful rocket PSLV can carry much less mass.

Though it took Isro several years to develop GSLV-MkIII, Isro has done only two development flights of the rocket. GSLV-MkIII is a three-stage vehicle — two large solid boosters as the first stage, two liquid engines (Vikas) as the second stage and a cryogenic upper stage. It is the cryogenic stage that has been giving Isro the trouble. Isro has been planning to use an upgraded version of GSLV-MkIII for Gaganyaan which would take three Indian astronauts to space for five to seven days. To meet the 2022 deadline, Isro has to conduct two unmanned tests of the rocket. Isro chairman K Sivan had earlier told TOI, “Isro is planning to have the first unmanned mission of Gaganyaan in December 2020 and the second in July 2021.”

If Chandrayaan-2 continues to hang in balance due to technical challenges of the vehicle, so would Gaganyaan. That would also mean uncertainty over the Aditya mission planned for the middle of next year to study the sun’s corona and its impact on climatic change.

