GSAT-8 and ISRO’s impossible dream

Ariane-5 blasting off from French Guiana with GSAT-8

India’s latest communication satellite, GSAT-8 was launched successfully from French Guiana aboard European Space Agency’s Ariane-5 rocket yesterday. The 3-ton satellite is the largest and heaviest ever built by ISRO and boasts of state-of-the-art communication devices designed to give a big boost to the country on the verge of being a major player in the global arena. While the agency is basking under the praise heaped on it by the media, let’s have a look to see whether they really deserve it.

India launched its first satellite, Aryabhata in 1975. We had no technical capability of launching even this small one, so it was carried by a Soviet rocket. ISRO built the satellite launch vehicle (SLV) and successfully blasted off Rohini-1A, a 30-kg satellite in 1979. India began development of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) which carries remote-sensing satellites then and slowly graduated to the development of GSLV (Geo-stationary Satellite Launch Vehicle) which would put communication satellites like the GSAT-8. GSLV project was launched in 1990 and had its maiden flight in 2001. With a mass of 400 tons, the GSLV is capable to put a payload of 2.5 tons into orbit. There were 7 missions so far, but 5 of them ended in failure. Every time one of the vehicles plunge into the Bay of Bengal, we are assured by politicians and ISRO scientists that a minor malfunctioning in a minor part of the system caused the accident which would be corrected soon. True to their word, the error will be corrected in the next mission, only for another component to fail. Even after 21 years of development, ISRO is unable to provide the nation with the capability. A whopping 32 years have passed since we first put a satellite into orbit, but still incompetent to master the technology.

To fully grasp ISRO’s incompetence, we should see how fast the others have developed the required wherewithal to be the key players in the field. NASA launched its first satellite, Explorer-I in 1958 and the first geo-synchronous satellite, Syncom-2 in 1963 with a Delta rocket, just 5 years later! The Europeans began with geo-synchronous capability in 1979 with its Ariane-1 rocket. The Russians could launch a geo-satellite 8 years after their entry into the field, with a Soyuz rocket achieving the target in 1965. All of them could attain in a decade what a nation of 1-billion people couldn’t in 32 years! Funding is definitely one of the factors in our lagging behind, but it seems to be a lame excuse. If we can build a rocket and blast it off from the pad, the role of funding is clearly over at that moment, what is remaining is the quality of the material and workmanship. With the present track record, ISRO is blocking the nation’s progress.

We shall now look at the power and capability of GSLV if at all we succeed in perfecting it. This much-touted rocket can handle a payload of only a maximum of 2.5 tons! With this paltry vehicle we cannot put even our own high-end satellites like GSAT-8 (launched yesterday, 3 tons), INSAT-4B (launched in 2007 from French Guiana, 3 tons) and GSAT-10 (planned in 2012, 3.4 tons). We still have to depend on foreign agencies for launching our heavier and more superb satellites. Even our plans are affected by the mediocrity of GSLV. A list of satellites launched or planned to be launched on GSLV shows this. GSAT-5P (2.3 tons, failed in Dec 2010), GSAT-4 (2.2 tons, failed in Apr 2010), INSAT-3D (2.1 tons), GSAT-6 (2.2 tons), GSAT-7 (2.3 tons, planned this year), GSAT-9 (2.3 tons, planned in 2013-14) are indicative of the trend of making lighter satellites so that GSLV can carry them. Surely, this is a waste of money! The incremental cost of a kg of payload is smaller as the total weight goes up. The uselessness of GSLV is painfully realised if we compare it to other workhorses around the world. NASA’s Delta-IV can carry up to 13 tons of payload, while Ariane-5 can do 9 tons and even Falcon-9, the flagship of SpaceX, a private company which entered the field in 2002 can carry 4.5 tons. Why are we aiming for the sub-standard?

The ISRO’s performance was dismal in the first decade of the new century. In this period, they could only augment the launch capability from 1.5 tons to 2.3 tons, an increase of only 800 kg. They seem to have reached the limit of usefulness with a full-fledged capability of polar vehicles and nothing more. Isn’t it high time that the nation demand more from their scientists? Where will be Chandrayaan-2 and manned lunar missions, if we can’t even put a man above our own earth?

Terrorist mastermind eliminated!

The day broke with the announcement by U.S. President Barack Obama that Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, which is the lynchpin of Islamic terror worldwide had been killed in an encounter with U.S. special troops ‘deep inside’ Pakistan. The man who is wanted dead or alive by the police forces of more than a dozen countries was staying incognito in Abbotabad, near the Pakistani capital city. The decade-long hunt by American agencies finally bore fruit and the world was relieved of one more malignant tumour in its bodymass. The massacres performed at the behest of this seemingly calm and handsome terrorist are blood-curdlingly cruel and inhuman. What more can we say about the man who plotted to ram a plane full of innocent people into a building occupied by ordinary people going about their daily lives? America deserves credit for steadfastly going after the perpetrators and its determined efforts to bring them to justice, which they have done at last. Well done, Obama and U.S. forces, India is proud of you.

As more details emerged later, it became clear that Pakistan was not even informed of the assault until it was over and bin Laden’s dead body was carried off to U.S. military base in Afghanistan. Then the Pakistani government began to whine, accusing the Americans of violating international law by carrying out an armed raid inside their sovereign territory. May be legally valid, but the protestations painted that ill-fated country’s plight in a dismal setting. Its secret forces, which effectively rules the country had utterly failed to locate this guy who was staying right under their noses for ten years. In fact, their fight against terror constituted only the protestations after U.S. strikes in their soil.

This is a historic moment when terrorism has been served a deadly blow. But, will it end? Not likely, as the seeds of terror are sown deep and widely dispersed. Al Qaeda is still very active and its machinery is in place for another deadly strike somewhere in the civilized world. Terrorism will end only when the Islamic clergy heeds to the voice of their moderate bretheren and rein in the extremists with good ‘fatwas’. So far, no imam or mullah has come up with a fatwa against bin Laden. This silent permission fuels the fanatic fire in them and the stage is fast reaching when they have to reap what they sowed.