Europe's Ariane 5 launches satellites for DirecTV, India

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- European heavy lift launcher Ariane 5 rocketed from the edge of the Amazon Rainforest on Saturday and toward Earth orbit to deliver a pair of advanced telecommunications satellites.

The DirecTV 14 spacecraft was built for the broadcast television company, and will provide expanded high definition and ultra-HD services for customers across America's fifty United States and Puerto Rico.

The second payload deployed by Ariane is GSAT-16, built by the Indian Space Research Organization located in southern India. GSAT rode into space at the bottom of the two satellite stack and was deployed last. "From its orbital position at 55° East, its coverage zone includes the entire Indian sub-continent," ISRO confirmed today.

Inclement weather and high upper level winds over the French Guiana Spaceport scrubbed two separate launch attempts by Arianespace on Thursday and Friday. The commercial launch organization in partnership with the European Space Agency waited until Saturday morning to announce a third attempt.

As the Sun neared the scattered cloud laden western horizon, the Ariane 5 core main engine ignited as countdown clock's in launch control reached zero. Seven seconds later, the launcher's twin solid fueled boosters ignited producing 2.92 million pounds of thrust.

India's GSLV rocket explodes after launch

India's pride soared and a minute later fell as their hopes for a successful space program fell to earth for the second time this year.

Approximately 47 seconds after the GSLV F06 rocket lifted-off at 5:34 am EST (4:04 pm local) from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, and as the first stage continued to burn, the rocket exploded.

The 161-foot white rocket uses four strap-on liquid boosters and a solid fueled core engine at launch.

The core engine's burn time is about 100 seconds.

At the top of the rocket was the GSAT-5P geostationary communications satellite.

No solid information has been released as of this writing.

Inda's GSLV rocket launch scrubbed due to leak

India today has scrubbed Monday's launch attempt of their GSLV-F06 rocket with the GSAT-5P satellite bound for geostationary orbit.

The launch countdown was due to pickup at the T-29 hour point, however "a minor leak in one of the valves of the Russian Cryogenic stage" was discovered during checks of the vehicle prior to picking up the count, the country's Satish Dhawan Space Center stated.

The cryo stage in question is the third stage which uses a mixture of super cold liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen to burn the stage's KVD engine.

The 161-foot white rocket uses four strap-on liquid rocket boosters and a solid fueled core engine at launch. The core engine's burn time is about 100 seconds.

A new date will be announced in the coming days, the space center adds, once the reason for the leak is discovered.

A GSLV launch last April resulted in it's satellite reaching a lower than planned orbit and being lost.

India's Space Program Suffers Setback Today

Today's GSLV-D3 launch screen grab via SpaceLaunch News.

India's upgraded GSLV rocket with a new cryogenic upper stage lifted-off today on a satellite delivery mission, only to begin tumbling when the upper stage's vernier engines did not light.

The GSLV-D3 (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket launched today from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on India's southeastern coastline, on time at 6:57 am EDT (10:57 GMT).

As the rocket lept upward it passed through cloudy skies as it began flying out over the eastern Indian Ocean.

The Indian Space Agency stated that the launch was normal through the end of the second stage engines burn as the rocket darted upward at a rate of 16,076 feet per second.

Applause broke out twice in the large control center.

It was then the turn of the inaugural flight of the cryogenic third stage engine coupled with several vernier engines on the GSLV.

At T+5 minutes, six seconds, the main engine of the upper stage ignited on time, but the two steering engines did not fire in sync with the engine. It lost control and went ballistic.

At T+ 8 minutes and 41 seconds, data stopped coming in, according to the space center's launch control.

A humbled K. Radhakrishnan, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization announced moments later that "the control ability was lost as the two cryo engines would not have ignited. We saw the vehicle was tumbling and loosing control indicating the non-ignition" of the engines.

The upper stage with the payload attached stopped traveling upward and began to free fall back toward earth, landing in the Bay of Bengal minutes later.

The third stage engine uses liquid hydrogen at -445 degrees Fahrenheit as fuel and liquid oxygen at -400 degrees as oxidizer.

The major loss of this flight is with the new technologies GSAT-4 satellite carried in the nose section of the vehicle.

India's space program is striving toward human space flight and probes to the planets by 2025, and the launch director stated that today's failure will set the program back one year.

"We will put all efforts to ensure that the next flight with the indigenous cryogenic engine takes place within a year," Radhakrishnan told the launch team from the control center.

GSAT-4 carried numerous payloads and was to have operated from a geostationary orbit located at 82 degrees East longitude.

India to Launch Scientific Satellite Thursday

GSAT-4 Stands Between it's Payload Fairing. (ISRO)

The Indian Space Agency are in the final stages of a rocket launch on a satellite delivery mission which the nation hopes will yield new technologies for their young space program.

India also hopes the satellite will help bridge isolated territories together.

The GSLV-D3 (Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle) rocket is scheduled for lift-off on Thursday from the Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on India's southeastern coastline.

The 164-foot white rocket is a three stage performance vehicle with four liquid strap-on boosters. It's core first stage uses solid propellant, while the upper two stages use liquid fuel.

Lift-off thrust of the newly rated rocket will be 1.47 million pounds of thrust.

Seconds into its launch, the GSLV will head out over the Indian Ocean with it's 2 tonne payload.

The GSLV's payload will be the GSAT-4 scientific satellite and test bed for future technologies for the country of India.

GSAT will carry numerous payloads as it operates from a geostationary orbit located at 82 degrees East longitude.

The satellite will use the powerful Ka-band antenna which will operate at 30 Ghz up and 20 Ghz downlink.

It also will operate it's GAGAN navigational aid payload for earth ships via it's C-band, L1 & L5-bands.

GAGAN, or GPS Aided Geo Augmented Navigation, is a GPS-based satellite overlay system which receives information via the C-band and relays corrected location data through it's L-bands for a more precise location.

Among the experiments aboard the eight-foot long satellite include the Thermal Control Coating Experiment which will study how certain materials breakdown in the harsh environment of space travel over several years.

The payload will also be a platform in space as it looks at how structures behave during thruster firings on orbit.

Known as the On-board Structural Dynamics Experiment, the experiment will allow ground controllers a look at an slight out of limits moves as the satellites gyro's operate as it's plasma Indian space officials hope GSAT will operate for greater than seven years, as it joins a collection of eleven geosat's which remain operational.

GSAT-4 will become the 19th Indian satellite built by the Indian Space Research Organisation.

The country's space agency announced recently that it hopes to launch humans into space and to set off to the planets with their own probes before 2025.

India announces loss of Lunar Satellite

The Indian government announced today that they have lost contact with their satellite mission to the Moon, with no causes as to why the satellite has disappeared.

India's Chandrayaan-I satellite stopped transmitting back to earth on Saturday following 3422 orbits of the Moon during 312 days.

The satellite's lunar mission was hoped to last 2 years as it tookt detailed, high resolution images of the surface, and carried experiments from the United States and Europe.

India is preparing the Chandrayaan-II satellite for launch aboard a GSLV rocket by 2012. A portion of the C-II will actually be based on the lunar surface.

India Successfully Launches Satellites Tonight

The country of India launched a pair of satellites this evening from its coastal launch base into low earth orbit, one of which will assist their country in the war on terrorism.

Liftoff of the PSLV-C12 rocket occurred on time at 6:45 am Indian Time Monday morning, or 9:15 pm EDT Sunday evening, from from the Satish Dhawan Space Center's Pad 2 (above today), located on an island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

The prime payload is the RISAT-2, or Radar Imaging 2 satellite, which India obtained from Israel last year, to help fight local terrorism and to survey terrorist cells in neighboring Pakistan. The high tech, super powerful radar imaging on RISAT will allow India to see through tree brush and canvas tents.

The secondary payload is the ANUSAT, which was developed by a university in India. Both satellites were sent into an orbit of 550 km (345 miles) high and at an orbital inclation of 41 degrees to the equator.

This was the thirteenth successful launch out of 15 flights of the PSLV-C12.

India nears Military Satellite Launch

India is stepping up the way it locates terrorist cells in and around her country with the launch of a military radar satellite from it's space center tonight (USA time).

Scheduled for launch at 01:15 UTC on April 20th (or 9:15 pm EDT tonight), the Radar Imaging Satellite or RISAT 2 will lift off from the Satish Dhawan Space Center's Pad 2, located on an island on the east coast of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, RISAT-2 and a secondary payload, ANUSAT, will launch aboard the PSLV-C12 rocket and into an orbit of 550 km (345 miles) high, and at an orbital inclination of 41 degrees to the equator. This will be the 15th launch of the 44 meters tall PSLV-C12 rocket.

Using a hi-tech radar dish, the RISAT will take very detailed images of suspected terrorist threats and will watch over its bordering country of Pakistan. Pakistan Defense stated last week that "the newly-acquired satellite will immensely enhance India's capability to keep a tab on its unfriendly neighborhood. Risat-2 is considered to be the first of its kind for India."

The launch countdown began at the T-:48 hour mark on Friday night at 9:15 pm EDT. There will be no traditional LIVE television of the launch according to the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

ISRO tells SpaceLaunchNews.com, "PSLV is a four-stage launch vehicle employing both solid and liquid propulsion stages. PSLV is the trusted workhorse launch Vehicle of ISRO. During 1993-2008 period, PSLV had fourteen launches of which thirteen were consecutively successful".