spacetoday.net: India successfully launches GSLV

Posted: Sun, Jan 5, 2014, 8:10 AM ET (1310 GMT)
GSLV-D5 launch (ISRO)

In its first successful flight in several years, India's Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) placed a communications satellite into orbit on Sunday. The GSLV lifted off on schedule at 5:48 am EST (1048 GMT, 4:18 pm Indian time) Sunday form the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on a mission designated GSLV-D5. The rocket's cryogenic upper stage released its payload, the GSAT-14 communications satellite, 17 minutes after liftoff. The 1,982-kilogram GSAT-14 will provide C-, Ka-, and Ku-band communications services for India from 74 degrees east in GEO. The launch was a major milestone for the Indian space agency ISRO, which had struggled to develop its own cryogenic upper stage. The previous two GSLV launches, in April and December in 2010, both failed; the last successful GSLV launch was in 2007.