The stage is all set for India to test its first domestically developed cryogenic engine for the first time on the locally built GSLV-D3 rocket – with the countdown for the April 15 launch expected to begin on Wednesday at the Sriharikota spaceport on Andhra coast.
“A 29-hour countdown is expected to start at 11.27 AM tomorrow for the launch of GSLV-D3 on Thursday at 4.27 PM,” Indian Space Research Organisation spokesperson Mr S Satish told PTI here.
The testing of the complex cryogenic technology is going to be a major landmark for the country’s space programme, and a successful mission would catapult India into the select band of nations — the US, Russia, France, Japan and China — which had master ed this “highest level” of propulsion technology.
It would make India totally self-reliant in space transportation area, Mr Satish said.
ISRO Chairman Mr K Radhakrishnan sees this week’s GSLV mission a result of 18 years of research and development on cryogenic technology by Indian scientists and engineers.
ISRO took up the indigenous development of cryogenic upper stage and engine after Russia succumbed to US pressure and declined to transfer the technology sought by India.
ISRO flew five of the seven “ready-made” cryogenic stages supplied by Russia in the earlier GSLV flights.
