Date:13/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/13/stories/2006071303940900.htm

Back K. Narayana to lead ISRO probe

Our Bureau

Bangalore, July 12

Mr K. Narayana, former Director of ISRO's Satish Dhawan Space Centre, will head the Failure Analysis Committee that will investigate the failure of the GSLV-F02 mission on July 10. The launcher was to have placed the 2-tonne Insat-4C communications satellite in orbit. Mr Narayana, now senior adviser at the Centre, heads a 15-member team of experts from ISRO centres, academic and research institutions, a release said. The team is expected to give its report in a month's time. The committee will review the performance of all sub-systems of the failed launcher right from its lift-off to the termination of the flight. It will also recommend measures for future course of action, the release said. ISRO had to use the destruction command for the first time for a failed launcher when it went awry at 15 km height. The initial assessment is that one of the four strap-on boosters in the first stage lost pressure, proved a dud and failed to give it the required lift.