ISRO launches GSLV D5, India among heavyweights of rocket science
After 20 years of toil, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) on Sunday took a quantum leap in mastering a rocket technology that puts it in the big league of space-faring nations, following a demonstration of the first-ever perfect performance of its indigenously developed cryogenic engine in the course of a successful flight of its Geo-Synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV). Dogged by setbacks and failure over the last six years, the heavy lift GSLV, which has the capacity to put satellites weighing over 2,000 kg in space, launched the 1,982 kg GSAT-14 communication satellite and put it in a near-perfect orbit on Sunday.
