Everything you need to know about ISRO's heavy-lift rocket GSLV-MkIII-D2

ISRO's heavy-lift rocket GSLV-MkIII-D2 Wednesday successfully injected into orbit the country's latest communication satellite GSAT-29 that is intended to meet the communication needs of people in remote areas in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir.

• At the end of a 27-hour-countdown which commenced at 2.50pm Tuesday, the rocket blasted off at 5.08 pm from the spaceport at Sriharikota, over 100 km from Chennai.
• According to ISRO, this is the country's heavy-lift rocket's second developmental flight, the first being (GSLV-MkIII-D1) on June 5, 2017 which launched the GSAT-19.
• The 3,423 kg GSAT-29 carries Ka and Ku band high throughput transponders which will provide communication services to remote places in the North East and Jammu and Kashmir under the Centre's Digital India programme, ISRO chief K Sivan said.
• ISRO scientists broke into cheers as the satellite was injected into a geosynchronous orbit, 16 minutes after lift-off.
• ISRO scientists had termed the launch crucial for the space agency as the rocket would be used for the ambitious Chandrayaan-2 and the country's manned space missions.
• The satellite would be placed in its final Geostationary Orbit using the onboard propulsion system and it may take a few days after separation from launcher to reach the orbital slot, ISRO said.
• The GSLV-MkIII-D2 is a three-stage launch vehicle with two solid strap-ons, a liquid core stage and a cryogenic upper stage.
• Compared to solid and liquid stages, the C25 cryogenic stage is more efficient as well as complex.
• According to ISRO, the GSAT-29 satellite is intended to serve as a test bed for several new technologies.
• It is specifically designed to cater to communication requirements of users from remote areas of the country.
• The mission life is about 10 years.
• GSLV-MkIII is the fifth generation launch vehicle developed by ISRO and is designed to place satellites of up to 4,000 kg in GTO.
• The launch vehicle is the 67th launch mission from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota and the thirty-third communication satellite built by ISRO for which this will be the fifth launch this year.
• (With PTI inputs)