GSLV-D3 mission fails, says ISRO

SRIHARIKOTA (ANDHRA PRADESH): India's GSLV-D3 rocket, powered for the first time by an indigenous cryogenic engine, blasted off on time on Thursday with a GSAT-4 satellite. But there was tension minutes later as the rocket stopped emitting signals, in a major blow to the country's space ambitions.

Indian Space Research Organisation ( ISRO) chairman K Radhakrishnan told reporters that the rocket began tumbling soon after launch "indicating the controllability was lost."

After the rocket, powered a complex technology mastered by just five countries, attained a height of 60 km, scientists at the control room here stopped getting signals.

Cryogenic boosters use supercooled liquid fuel and the technology has only been successfully developed by the US, Russia, France, Japan and China.

India had previously imported seven cryogenic engines from Russia, using five of them to launch heavy satellites over the last decade.

The technology is intended to launch heavier satellites into high orbits, about 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) from the earth, ISRO has said.