We feel we have paid off all our debt to the country: ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan

Zee Media Bureau

Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Development 5 (GSLV-D5) with indigenous cryogenic engine has successfully placed GSAT-14 communication satellite on orbit. After the launch, this is what an elated ISRO chief K Radhakrishnan said, “Team ISRO has done it. The vehicle performed as predicted in this mission and successfully inserted the satellite into the orbit. We feel we have paid off all our debt to the country.“ He also termed it as an important milestone for the country. Before the launch ISRO chief and the other scientists had said that they were quite confident of a successful launch this time. A day before, K Radhakrishnan had remarked that "We have thoroughly studied the past experiences and made changes. We are all upbeat,". After two failures and an aborted attempt at launching the `heavy duty` rocket in the past three years,there was a huge anxiety brewing amongst the scientists with all eyes set on it. Today`s successful launch will prove to be a morale booster for ISRO and will pave the way for bigger space ventures. The mission`s success would not only pave way for ISRO to save launch costs paid to foreign space agencies but also to launch more communication satellites augmenting the transponder capacity to earn more revenue, according to the ISRO chief.