The three-stage rocket burst into flames during the first stage operation, a minute after lift-off at 5.38 pm from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, some 80 km from Chennai.

The failure of the Rs 256 crore-mission was being attributed to pressure in one of the four strap-on motors dropping to zero in the first stage operation, causing the GSLV to “deviate slightly” from the designed trajectory.

“This is one of the rarest phenomena and could be due to a problem in one of the strap-ons which led to the mission’s failure,” said a crestfallen G Madhavan Nair, ISRO chairman, while briefing the media after the launch mishap.

“The problem developed in the course of the first stage. After the deviation, we gave the ‘Destruct’ command because we had to safeguard locals,” he said, adding that the debris had fallen into the sea.

“A quick look at the preliminary findings show that of the four strap-on motors, pressure in one of them dropped to zero. The other three functioned normally,” said Madhavan Nair. This caused the deviation in the trajectory. While four degrees of angular error was within the normal limit, the vehicle went off the path by 10 degrees.

“Until 60 seconds, we received huge data on the telemetry. But it has to be analysed and this process has been initiated. We will know what exactly caused the failure in the next few days,” he said.

According to the ISRO chief, work on another INSAT-4 satellite was on and “we will have a successful launch within a year”. This would be a heavier satellite and would be launched from Kourou in French Guiana.

New India, French partner to pick tab

• New India Assurance and French reinsurance partner Space Co to pay for INSAT-4C loss

• ISRO paid nearly Rs 150 crore premium for satellite’s launch and one year of orbit life

• In case of complete loss, satellite was insured up to Rs 900 crore, depending on different stages of flight

• Launch vehicle was not insured, claim may not be as high as total insured amount

• ISRO may have to pay higher premium next time

• Along with premium, New India also passed on risk to Space Co which has so far reinsured 10 ISRO programmes

• Direct-to-home (DTH) plans of Sun TV take a hit as it had booked 7 of 12 transponders on INSAT-4C

• Lankan TV too had booked transponders in satellite

—Dev Chatterjee