GSLV-D3 The case of the 'Cry'o-genic engine

Everything about it was quite nice right from the beginning. What was supposed to be a hot summer afternoon, turned out to be a pleasant one, the lift-off was perfect, the rocket going up, up and away was amazing. When the rocket emerged from behind the trees, lots of 'oohs' and 'wow's' were heard. "Amazing launch...one of the best I have seen," remarked some journalists. Some were heard saying that the noise levels were low this time around. Everyone then bundled down to the conference hall below, where the next progress of the rocket with India's 'indigenous cryogenic engine', could be seen on the large screen, in the form of a line and dots that would keep blinking indicating the location of the rocket on the line, which is supposed to be the actual path of the rocket.Everything seemed to be smooth.

Elsewhere, one man was sitting in front of a red button that would terminate the whole mission and blow up the rocket and 18 years of effort to build our own cryogenic engine, that would put India on the league of the biggies.

Minutes pass. His services are not required any more. The control room is full of activity. The blips on the line on the screen have disappeared after the rocket went away from its path. No data. Frantic phone calls are made from the control room. Lots of activity is seen. A few minutes later, the bad news arrives. The rocket did not make it to its orbit. The country's first attempt at making its own cryogenic engine had failed. The engine failed to ignite. The engine was expected to take the satellite to its exact orbit and release it. But then the engine had other plans and decided to plunge into the Bay of Bengal. 18 years of effort, after fighting off US sanctions, buying Russian engines for about Rs 90 crore each, went bust in a few minutes. Rs 336 crore spent on development of the indigenous machine went waste.

Nevertheless, the Bhagavad Gita was there for solace for the new chairman of ISRO, K Radhakrishnan, for whom it was the first launch as the head of the organisation. He sought refuge under ""Karmanye Vadhikaraste Ma Phaleshu Kadachana" (You have a right to perform your prescribed action,but you are not entitled to the fruits of your action). But then he was determined as well. "Team ISRO Will do it", he thundered as he promised to deliver the cryo engine next year, facing the large contingent of media all alone, taking responsibility for the failure.