Month: January 2014

  • The Cryogenic Engines of the GSLV

     was searching for information sources that I could use to write the Wikipedia article on the GSLV. My last bit of work on that article was on improving the history of the GSLV. I am happy to notice that the recent success of the GSLV has also cleaned up that article visually. Now, I was looking at the cryogenic stage to improve that section of the article.

    I noticed that a link had been added to the indigenous cryogenic engine called the CE-7.5. I think that was the name given to the Russian cryogenic engine, KVD-1 supllied to India and not the indigenous one. I could be wrong. However, the Indian cryogenic engine has been called CUS-12 here. I could not find similar places where the indigenous engine has been called the CE-7.5. I left a note on the talk page of the article to see if anyone else could find any reference.

    Another thing to notice is that Indian engines are usually named after the propellant loading. This is true for the S-139, L-110 and also the CUS-12, which is loaded with 12.8 tonnes of propellant. CE-7.5 just rings odd to me.

    This brought me back to the Russian engine. These are the KVD-1s. These are modified versions of the RD-56 engines that the Russians developed for their N-1 moon rocket. The KVD-1 were never actually test-flown before they were sold to power the third stage of the GSLV. GSLV hence acted as a test bed for these. As per this, it also seems that the Russians used this to validate their design and to prove to themselves, that the designs actually flew. Hence, they too were quite happy with the success of the first three flights (one was a partial success though ISRO claims it as a success) of the GSLV.

    An interesting paper [PDF] published in the AIAA in 2006 provided better information and details. These are a better source of information since these are by the people from the institution that actually designed this engine. The paper is in itself worth a blog post and I will perhaps read it in its entirety before writing here again. For the purposes of this post, the paper clarified that the KVD-1 was a modified version of and not a rename of the RD-56. The two are quite different. The KVD-1 was developed specifically to power the upper stage of launch vehicles, hence suited to the need of the GSLV. It may also be worth your while to read up on gas generator cycles – especially the staged combustion cycle.

  • ISRO’s Naughty Boy puts India in the Cryo Club

    The “naughty boy” reference in the title of this post is how the Mission Director, GSLV K Sivan called the GSLV. He said the naughty boy had finally obeyed the flight path and delivered the GSAT-14 into orbit.

    Today’s success is a big deal for India. India has been trying to build launch vehicles capable of launching communication satellites since the 1990s. They initially thought they would buy the technology from the Soviet Union. It’s collapse and faced by pressure from the US, India’s then ISRO Chairman, Prof U R Rao decided to embark on India’s indigenous cryogenic programme called the Cryogenic Upper Stage Project (CUSP). The launch today is the final culmination of that project started in 1994. As the current ISRO Chairman rightly said, “20 years of efforts in realising an indigenous engine and stage has now fructified”.

    Today’s success was built on the hard work of a lot of people in industry and in ISRO. The problems that have been plaguing the project in the last 5 years include three flight failures. The team had undergone a gruelling review from several boards and had made several design changes and run several tests. The failures as the LPSC Director said after the launch were painful.

    I must admit that I was really tense before the telecast started. The telecast began at 1530 hrs (IST) on Doordarshan instead of the publicised 1552 hrs (IST). Seeing the sombre faces of those present there did not ease my tension. My tension persisted till about the cryogenic engine ignition.

    Unlike ordinary telecasts that are met with quiet claps at each stage separation event, people were actually up on their feet after the second stage separation. The first smiles and applause broke out as the cryogenic engine lit up as planned. As the ignition was sustained, that is, more claps broke out. A few smiles appeared on the people’s faces 300 seconds into the flight of the cryogenic stage. As the stage efficiently provided enough velocity to the put the satellite into orbit, everyone in the Mission Control Center was on their feet and with their faces glued to the screen. I had not seen so much tension in the room even during the Mars mission!

    I personally would rate this success a higher one than even the Mars mission. Success in this critical technology enables India’s space programme to indigenously launch communication satellites, launch interplanetary missions like the Chandrayaan-II and perhaps even the second Mars mission and opens the ground for heavier science missions that India has not considered yet.

    While this was an important success, the improvements need to continue and the GSLV needs to show more consistency in its success rate in the future before it can be trusted with more important missions like Chandrayaan-II. If the GSLV Mk-III mission slated for March-April 2014 succeeds, India will gain capability in launching all classes of satellites it builds by the end of this decade.

    There are more tests in the road ahead, but tonight we celebrate another important milestone  in the Indian Space Programme. I had a nice medu-wada sambhar, the fuel that powers ISRO in the evening to celebrate.

  • Red Letter day for the GSLV

    January 5, 2014 is a really important day in Indian Space History. On this day, the GSLV on its eighth launch, is scheduled for lift off at 1618 hrs (IST).

    The 29 hour countdown to the lift-off started today morning at 1118 hrs (IST). At the time of writing this post, things are proceeding smoothly. ISRO has been updating through their website and via their new Twitter and Facebook accounts.

    This is a critical test for the vehicle as a whole. I had elaborated on some of the improvements that ISRO has made to this vehicle, the GSLV Mk-II, in a previous post. The success of this launch would set the agenda and the time table for India’s communication satellite launches, interplanetary missions and the human space flight programme.

    In fact, most of the media reports have also concentrated on the vehicle and largely ignored reporting on the payload, the GSAT-14. Besides the usual C-band and Ku-band transponders, it is carrying a fibre optic gyro, active pixel sun sensor, Ka band propogation experiments and thermal control coating experiments. What these things are not explained even in the ISRO brochure.

    The Doordarshan telecast and webcast begins rather at 1552 hrs (IST). It does seem rather too precise, does it not?

    I am not going to try and live-blog this launch. I prefer to write here after I experience all the excitement there is and write here rather calmly.

    Best wishes to ISRO and Godspeed GSLV-D5 and GSAT-14.

  • An Indian on the Moon?

    It was Jeff Foust who first alerted me to this news story via Twitter.

    Indian report claims ISRO and Indian defense ministry have signed an MOU to study a human lunar mission: http://t.co/Z1qO4e39kV

    — Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) December 27, 2013

     He himself seemed surprised by this report as were space enthusiasts like me. As he says..

    That report is interesting as India has deprioritized human spaceflight in recent years; even robotic Moon missions lower priority vs Mars.

    — Jeff Foust (@jeff_foust) December 27, 2013

    We just don’t have all the components in place to attempt human spaceflight yet – most notably, a human rated launch vehicle. Work has been on-going on the Crew Module which is likely to be first tested on a test-flight of the GSLV Mk-III according to a recent op-ed written by ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan in the Deccan Chronicle. The article goes on to state that this vehicle will commence demonstration flights in 2016.

    Today, ISRO has refuted the claims made by their colleagues in the Armed Forces Medical Wing. The Armed Forces Medical Wing officials seemed to provide very detailed and descriptive answers on what they had on hand and what they hoped to do with the data.

    It seems that 2014 will be an interesting year. Srinivas Laxman (a friend) wrote this for the Times of India. The story essentially says that even if the Air Force is ready, ISRO just isn’t. It will be interesting to see this story play out and see if ISRO gets a shot in the arm for its human space flight programme as a result of this tussle. This makes the flight of the GSLV-D5 this Sunday even more important, as a stepping stone to success.