BANGALORE, July 11: Indian scientists were on Tuesday probing the failure of a rocket meant to launch a communications satellite, but said it was not a major blow to the country’s three-decade-old space programme.

The deep-space rocket carrying India’s heaviest communications satellite disintegrated in a plume of smoke and flames seconds after lift-off on Monday.

“It’s one of the rarest phenomena,” said G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

“The problem developed during the first stage which means ... the motor was not developing thrust. The failure was not due to a design flaw.

“The lift-off was normal. But after a few seconds the vehicle did not follow the designed trajectory. It deviated. After about 60 seconds, some parts of the vehicle broke up,” Nair told AFP.

He said the failure of the launch off the coast of the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh was a ‘setback’ as India had a track record of 11 consecutive successful flights.

“If you look at the launch vehicles’ history, failures are not uncommon. The (US) shuttle had failures,” Nair said.

“We will pinpoint the failure. We will take corrective action. Within a year we will have the GSLV up again.”

The 49-metre (161-foot) rocket, called the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV), carried a 2,168-kilogram INSAT 4-C satellite to be put into stationary orbit at 36,000 kilometres.

It was programmed to boost television services for the next 10 years.

Disaster struck less than a day after an unsuccessful test flight of India’s Agni-III nuclear-capable missile which has a range of 4,000 kilometres and is designed to arm New Delhi with a ballistic weapon.

This is the fifth time since 1979 that ISRO failed in its attempt to launch a satellite.

“I am sure the INSAT-4C failure needs careful investigation. We have to unearth the facts,” said Roddam Narasimha, a member of India’s policy-making Space Commission.—AFP