Video: GSAT-5P communications satellite explodes during launch

by Steven Mostyn - Dec 27 2010, 10:20

India’s burgeoning space program suffered a festive gut punch over the weekend after the Christmas day launch of an advanced GSAT-5P communications satellite came to an explosive end high above the Indian Ocean.

Mission footage posted to clip-sharing site YouTube (see below) shows the unmanned Geostationary Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) veering sharply from its planned trajectory before breaking up just moments after rising clear of the Sriharikota rocket pad near the city of Chennai.

Citing unnamed sources from within the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), state-owned TV broadcaster Doordarshan initially reported that the rocket’s demise was caused by a mysterious technical malfunction.

However, ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishman has since revealed that control cables connected to on-board computer hardware snapped during lift off, causing the flight path deviation and forcing mission controllers to destroy the rocket remotely.

India’s doomed satellite launch had originally been planned for December 20, but was pushed back until December 25 after engineers uncovered a leak connected to one of the rocket’s engines.

The Economic Times reports that the malfunction cost the ISRO somewhere in the vicinity of $66 million USD as its rocket disintegrated amid clouds of smoke and debris.

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