Towards this month-end, national space agency ISRO hopes to realise its second consecutive success with the indigenous GSLV launcher boosted by its Indian cryogenic third stage.

The upcoming GSLV-D6 is the ninth in the series of the indigenous medium-lift satellite launch vehicle. It is for now slated to take off on or around August 27 from Sriharikota. Its passenger, the 2,140-kg communication satellite GSAT-6, was taken to Sriharikota from Bengaluru on July 20.

ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, A.S. Kiran Kumar, told The Hindu: “Our last GSLV launch with the indigenous cryo stage was in January 2014 and it was a success. [A success this time] will mean that ISRO can go ahead and have two GSLV launches a year as planned.

“Each success adds to the reliability and continuity of the vehicle. We now have a viable version. The basics have already been demonstrated. There is a lot of confidence and we are already working on the next lot.”

Satellites from home

The forthcoming launch will notch a significant milestone in the nation’s elusive GSLV programme, which was taken up in the mid-1990s and tried out for the first time in April 2001. The launcher will enable India to put into space two-tonne-class communication satellites from home — rather than on costly Western launchers.

Six early GSLVs, called Mark I, used Russian-made cryo stages. Mark II uses the homegrown cryo stage.

The next four or five GSLV launches would be for domestic use: INSAT-3DR and a spare to replace the meteorology satellite INSAT-3D; GISAT and its follow-on; and GSAT-6A to replace GSAT-6 after a few years.

Mr. Kiran Kumar said: “This flight will also test a few new technologies. One of them is the satellite antenna, which is unfurlable and of six metres in diametre. We are looking forward to testing this out as it has some advantages. It can give concentrated energy density for the same power. So far in older INSATs, we have routinely used antennas with diametres of 2.2 to 2.8 metres.”

As for its older and successful PSLV light-lift launcher, ISRO has made 30 flights since 1995 and has also commercially put 45 small and medium foreign satellites into orbit. Their launch fees earned ISROs business entity Antrix Corporation revenues totalling about Rs. 102 crore.

It is the ninth in the series of the indigenous medium-lift satellite launch vehicle