India takes first step towards manned space mission
Source: The Hindu
Dot 9.30 am, India’s first experimental flight GSLV Mark III took off successfully from the second launch pad at Satish Dhawan Space Centre, in Sriharikota on Thursday. Also known as LVM3/CARE, this suborbital experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight and this carried passive (non functional) cryogenic upper stage.
"Everything went off as expected. This new launch vehicle performed very well and is a great success. We had an unmanned crew module to understand re-entry characteristics. That also went off successfully and it has touched down in the Bay of Bengal," said ISRO’s chief K. Radhakrishnan.
In exactly about five and half minutes after taking off, the vehicle carried its payload — the 3775 kg crew module Atmospheric Re-entry experiment (CARE) — to the intended height of 126 km.
Two massive S-200 solid strap-on boosters, each carrying 207 tonnes of solid propellants, ignited at the vehicle lift off and after functioning normally, separated 153.5 seconds later. L110 liquid stage ignited 120 seconds after lift off, while S200s were still functioning for the next 204.6 seconds.
Read more: http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/india-successfully-test-fires-gslv-markiii-its-heaviest-rocket/article6703691.ece
= new reply since forum marked as read
