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COVER STORY: GSLV LAUNCH
Perumal—The Force Behind The GSLV
Perumal is what
is known in ISRO as a "failure analysis
junkie" and for him to look concerned meant that something serious
was wrong. An engineering graduate from Karaikudi in Tamil Nadu and a
masters in aeronautics from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore,
the homegrown Perumal has emerged as one of ISRO's top rocketeers. He
was associated with the PSLV right from its conception in 1980. After
the successful launch of the PSLV in 1994, while everyone was celebrating
with more than just plain soda, Perumal was busy poring over the flight
data to see "where we were riding on the skin of our teeth on some
stages".
When Perumal took over in 1996 as project director
of GSLV, it had had a turbulent history. As had ISRO's rocket programme.
After the initial breakthrough of sending a small satellite launch vehicle
called simply slv3 in 1980, the organisation experienced a string of failures
while trying to augment the nation's rocket capability. It was not till
the early 1990s and that too after the first failed launch of PSLV that
ISRO recovered and notched up a string of successes.
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PROBLEM SOLVED: A fault on the strap-on booster led to the first
attempt being aborted
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For GSLV, ISRO had to master the ultra-sophisticated
cryogenic fuel technology. In 1992, Russia agreed to sell a few engines
and transfer the technology for Rs 235 crore. But the US, worried that
the cryogenic engine would equip India with Inter-Continental Ballistic
Missile (ICBM) technology, turned the heat on Russia saying the deal violated
the Missile Technology Controls Regime (MTCR) to which Russia was a signatory.
Russia reneged on the deal and agreed to supply India only seven such
cryogenic engines for future launches and refused to transfer the technology.
Since then ISRO has embarked on a challenging programme to build a similar
cryogenic engine indigenously and hopes to mount the Indian version on
the GSLV from the third launch onwards expected in 2003.
If there was a rocket stage about which Perumal
had expected trouble it was in the Russian-built cryogenic one that had
never been validated on flight before, not even in Russia. So he was shaken
by the deviation the graph was showing during the four minutes that the
tested and tried second-stage liquid engine was firing. However, he was
puzzled by the fact that all the vital parameters from the computer console
showed the engine performing normally. It would be only after the flight
that the ISRO team found that there was a simple error in the plotting
mechanism on the graph board. Their worry only increased when the cryogenic
stage also seemed to be underperforming. This was a critical stage which
doubles the speed of the spacecraft and finally injects the satellite
at a speed of 10.2 km per second.
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STATE OF ART: India has already
earned a name for itself in building satellites |
The cryogenic stage had the longest burn time
of close to five minutes and 14 seconds. Now it was the turn of the Russian
scientists involved in the project to look concerned. Just when it looked
as if things were going terribly wrong, the craft picked up speed and
at the final injection point over Indonesia, just 17 minutes after blast
off, it was 60 m per second slower than the required velocity for the
satellite. It meant that the experimental satellite, GSAT 1, would have
to use some of its precious onboard fuel to make up for the shortfall,
possibly cutting its anticipated life of three years by about five months.
Yet, for the overall mission, the deviation was within expected parameters
and Kasturirangan declared the mission "an exceptional success",
adding with relief, " It was the longest 17 minutes for Indian space."
For Perumal the slight shortfall in the final stage was like a pimple
that marred an otherwise beautiful flight.
For the other members of the space club, GSLV's
first launch was seen as an impressive performance. "India has become
one of the space powers of the world with this launch," said A.I.
Dounaev, chairman of Russian space agency Glavkosmos. He added, "After
a few more launches India will soon be able to enter the arena of commercial
launches with the GSLV and it will have the cost advantage over other
countries." The cost factor is certainly a plus for India because
its launches are on average cheaper by 15 per cent than comparable Western
launchers. The world market for communications launchers is dominated
by Ariane which accounts for close to 60 per cent of the total launches
annually. It is followed by the US and Russia, with China too trying to
catch up. Dounaev doesn't see India eating into the Russian share of the
market and says that it could tap the south-east Asian and Arabian markets.
Ariane, which bags most of the contracts for
launching the INSAT satellites, was equally impressed. In Paris, Didier
Aubin, its director, sales and marketing, said, "It is a significant
step. Indians have shown that when they want to do something they can
do it. It takes time to do it but they have the will to succeed."
Aubin feels that India can compete for the niche market segment in the
geo-satellite launch business and if it pumps in more money into the programme
it can be a serious player in the business. Kasturirangan agrees. The
problem is that unlike in other space faring countries, the private sector
in India is not involved in building launchers in a big way.
Also with the growing demand for heavier satellites
of four-tonnes capacity, which means many more transponders for the same
launch costs, the GSLV with its ability to lift a payload of only two
tonnes may not find many takers. ISRO itself will have to shop outside
for launches for the new heavier INSAT class satellites it is building.
Madhavan Nair, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, where much of Indian
rocketry is conceived and built, admits that there would have to be major
improvements in the GSLV's performance before it can become commercially
viable. "We need to double our carrying capacity while cutting costs
by half. To make a mark, we have to show that we are more reliable and
less expensive than the rest," he says. In the next few years, Nair
and his team are working on ways to augment GSLV's capability to make
it more competitive. Two more GSLV launches are scheduled, one early next
year.
Unfortunately for ISRO, the market for low earth
orbit communication satellites that had exploded when Iridium and Globalstar
set up the satellite mobile telephony business has now collapsed along
with the two companies. These two companies had between them launched
close to 100 satellites in the past five years. Admits N. Sampath, executive
director of Antrix, ISRO's marketing arm: "It's tough going now even
though PSLV is a highly competitive launcher." PSLV is currently
being hired for experimental satellites and in the next flight expected
in July, a Belgium and a German firm have bought space. The money isn't
much-just $1 million each. ISRO earns much more from the satellite business.
It has a $100 million contract with intelsat to lease out 11 of its transponders
for 10 years. And in remote sensing it has sold data from IRS for around
$10 million.
Yet all this is chickenfeed for the huge potential
that commercial space business offers. If ISRO's newfound prowess is to
grow then it has to demonstrate this through economic viability. It has
all the potential to be a big player but it needs money to compete. Says
Ariane's Aubin: "If you can fund the programme well now, you can
make a very big jump and be a player to reckon with." Now India and
ISRO must decide whether they want to take on the world in the global
space business.
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