Main Engine Cut OffWhat GSLV-MK3 Means to India
Last week, while I was heading to the keynote at Apple’s WWDC, India successfully launched their new vehicle, the Geostationary Launch Vehicle Mark 3.
Sridhar Narayanan wrote an incredibly-detailed article for The Planetary Society that I highly recommend reading. It’s a great history of India’s program, a great overview of where they are today, and really gives you perspective on what this launch means for them:
Crewed missions and planetary science apart, the main reason for the development of the GSLV-MK3 is to launch heavier commercial satellites to geostationary orbit. ISRO’s heaviest communications satellites are already in the 3 metric ton weight range, and the organization currently lacks the capability to launch them using its own launchers, relying on Arianespace instead. With the qualification of GSLV-MK3, ISRO will finally succeed in its quest to develop, build and launch its own payloads into space without relying on other organizations. In addition to its own missions, the rocket also provides ISRO greater options in the competitive commercial satellite launch market, where it could only offer its services for small satellites so far—mostly Earth-observation and experimental/research satellites. With the GSLV-MK3, ISRO can offer launch services for heavy communications satellites.
It’s a big deal for India and where they are today, but the bottom line is that any launch vehicle program relying on hypergolics and/or solids for the boost stage is most definitely not the future.
We’ll see where they go with it once it starts flying regularly, but it’s important to remember the development timelines of India’s programs. From Caleb Henry at SpaceNews:
Central to the success of yesterday’s launch was the performance of a new domestic cryogenic third stage. ISRO’s Propulsion Complex director, P.V. Venkatakrishnan, said the C25 engine took 15 years to create, starting in 2002, following five years of background work that began as an idea in 1997.
When the idea was hatched, Jeff Bezos was driving a 1996 Honda Accord and had just taken Amazon public, and Elon Musk was graduating from Penn, just a few blocks from where I sit now.