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According to an Indian Space Research Organisation
(ISRO) official, "The large solid propellant
booster project was taken up nearly a decade ago
and will achieve its first milestone next month."
Recently, ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan had said
the static testing of the booster will happen
soon.
The 200-tonne solid propellant rocket booster,
designed to power ISRO's next generation (geosynchronous
launch vehicle) GSLV Mark III, will be ground
tested at India's space port Satish Dhawan Space
Centre, Sriharikota, 80 km from here.
This stage is expected to burn for 103 seconds.
In terms of fuel mass and length, the GSLV Mark
III's 200 tonne, 25 metre long solid boosters
will rank after US Space Shuttle's booster (fuel
mass of 440 tonne, 37.8 metre) and Europe's Ariane
(fuel mass 240 tonne, length 31.6 metre).
Measured in terms of diameter, ISRO's new solid
booster will rank second in the world with 3.2
metre while that of Space Shuttle and Ariane measure
are 3.6 metre and 3.05 metre respectively.
As to fuel burn time, the ranking will be in
the order of Ariane (130 seconds), Space Shuttle
(123 seconds) and GSLV Mark III (103 seconds).
Notably, the US is developing a much larger first
stage solid rocket motor for its new rocket Ares1.
Its diametre is 3.77 metre, length 52 metre with
a propellant capacity of 625 tonne with a burn
time of 123 seconds.
While the US recovers Space Shuttle booster steel
casings for re-use, ISRO has no such plans as
it requires parachutes for soft landing on the
Indian seas and there are issues relating to recovery
assets and reuse in terms of costs and deployment
effort.
"The steel casing has to be cleaned of salt
deposits and refurbished for re-use," the
ISRO official told IANS on condition of anonymity.
The 42.4-metre-tall GSLV Mark III rocket with
a liftoff weight of 630 tonne is being designed
to reach towards the heavens sometime in 2011
carrying communication satellites weighing up
to five tones, thereby making India self sufficient
in respect of launch vehicles for heavier payloads.
The first stage of the three fuel stage rocket
will be two identical solid boosters strapped
onto the second stage, the L110 re-startable liquid
stage.
The third stage is the cryogenic stage powered
by liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen.
The large payload fairing measures 5 metre in
diameter and can accommodate a payload volume
of 100 cubic metre.
ISRO's existing rockets - the three stage GSLV
and four stage Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle
(PSLV)- have a lower carrying capacity.
The present GSLV can carry a luggage of 2.5 tonne
to be ejected in geo-transfer orbit (GTO) while
PSLV can sling 1.6 tonne and 1.1 tonne satellites
into polar orbit and GTO respectively.
Interestingly, January 2010 will be a landmark
month in ISRO's calendar for one more reason:
the space agency will be flying its GSLV powered
by its own cryogenic engine.
(IANS)
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