In Photos: India’s Most Powerful Rocket Launches on Debut Flight

On June 5, 2017, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) launched its first Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark III rocket from India’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre Sriharikota. It marked India’s heaviest and most powerful launch to date.


ISRO used the GSLV Mark III rocket to launch the massive GSAT-19 satellite into orbit. Liftoff occurred at 7:28 a.m. EDT on June 5, but at the launch site the local time was 5:28 p.m. in the afternoon.

India’s GSLV Mark III rocket stands 141 feet tall (43 meters) and weighs 705 tons (640 metric tons) when fully loaded. Here it is seen at ISRO’s “Second Launchpad” at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in a stunning twilight view.

While the GLSV Mark III rocket is India’s heaviest and most powerful rocket, it is not the tallest. Its predecessor, the GSLV Mark II, stands 160 feet (49 meters) tall – that’s nearly 20 feet taller. This front view of the GLSV Mark III shows its squat appearance. Some Indian press reports nicknamed the rocket “Fatboy.”

Helping the GSLV Mark III launch into space are two solid rocket boosters on each side of its liquid-fueled core stage. A liquid-fueled upper stage (darker segment beneath the nose cone) then boosts a satellite into orbit.

The GSLV Mark III rocket is moved out Second Launch Pad at ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

Like many launch providers and agencies, ISRO pieces its rockets together vertically in a Vehicle Assembly Building. After assembly, the GSLV Mark III rocket is moved out to the launch pad using a mobile transporter system.

Every rocket needs a payload and here ISRO engineers are attaching the payload fairing (or nose cone) containing the GSAT-19 communications satellite to the GSLV Mark III rocket.

In 2014, ISRO launched an experimental version of a GLSV Mark III rocket that was never intended to reach space. It launched a suborbital flight because its upper stage was a mockup, not a real stage. Here, an actual upper stage booster is attached to the first orbital GSLV Mark III rocket.

Here ISRO engineers hoist the GLSV Mark III rocket’s upper stage into assembly position inside the agency’s Vehicle Assembly Building at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre. The upper stage is about 44 feet (13.5 meters) tall and 13 feet (4 m) wide.

ISRO engineers prepare the upper stage of the GSLV Mark III rocket for launch. When fully fueled, the stage carries 28 metric tons of cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen propellant.

Looking bit like a Headless Horseman, but for space, India’s first orbital GSLV Mark III rocket stands half-built on its pedestal. Here the twin S200 solid rocket stages have been attached to the core stage, but the upper stage still waits to be attached.

Inside India’s Vehicle Assembly Building, the twin solid rocket boosters and core liquid-fueled stage of ISRO’s GSLV Mark III rocket are mated together.

Powered by two of India’s Vika rocket engines, the core stage of the GSLV Mark III is seen during the rocket process. The core stage stands about 69 feet tall (21 meters) and is 13 feet (4 m) wide.

The two S200 strap-on solid rocket boosters for the GSLV Mark III rocket stand like lonely sentinels as they await their core stage. Each of the boosters is 82 feet packed with 205 metric tons of solid HTPB (hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene) propellant.

India’s GSAT-19 communications satellite is seen in the clean room at the ISRO’s Satish Dhawan Space Centre. Clean rooms offer sterile environments that allow engineers to work on satellites like GSAT-19 without fear of contamination to the spacecraft.

ISRO Engineers test the GSAT-19 communication satellite’s antennas during a preflight check. The massive 6,913-pound (3,136-kilogram) satellite is designed to provide television broadcasts, data and broadband services for customers across India.

ISRO Engineers look over the GSAT-19 satellite to ensure it will be ready for its launch on the first orbital GSLV Mark III rocket.

Much of the testing work on GSAT-19 was conducted at the ISRO Satellite Centre, which is home to the space agency’s ISRO Satellite Integration and Test Establishment, or ISITE. Here, the satellite is seen during one of its many tests to make sure it is fit for flight.

The GSAT-19 communications satellite undergoes a vibration test to make sure it can withstand the launch into orbit.

India’s GSAT-19 undergoes a reflector deployment test to make sure the communications satellite’s systems will perform as expected in orbit.

Before launching GSAT-19 into the vacuum of space, ISRO engineers wanted to make sure the satellite was hardy enough to survive the harsh heat and other conditions. To do that, they placed the satellite in a thermal vacuum test facility (left) to mimic some of the conditions in orbit.