With the destruction of the GSLV rocket sixty-three seconds after launch today, India's space mission planners see a major set-back for the nation's space program which may result in a delay of the planned second Indian moon mission, Chandrayaan-2, which will be flown by the GSLV, reports The Times of India.
The GSLV failure may impact India's planning of human space missions in the 2015 to 2017 time frame along with the ability to attract foreign satellite launches to expand the commercial space launch sector. Satellite insurance coverage using the GSLV will be more challenging in the near-term future.
The Asian nation's space program has rapidly expanded with ambitious space plans in a competitive spirit with China and Japan. Many of India's space program supporters and onlookers were stunned by the launch failure and the potential consequences.
India's next moon mission, Chandrayaan II, will be launched in 2013-14, ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan said immediately following the second consecutive space launch failure this year and the third of the last seven for the booster.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)] has had a troubled past with GSLV, with only two of the seven launches so far claiming total success. Though ISRO claims that four launches had been successful, independent observers call at least two of them either failure or partial success. When it comes to launching its workhorse PSLV, ISRO has had 15 consecutive successes.
The Chinese Xinhua News Agency points out that there were three significant space launch failures by the South Korea, Russia and India in 2010.
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