India has failed to launch its indigenous GSLV rocket due to engine trouble, the head of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) said.
K. Radhakrishnan said the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, GSLV D3, fell into the Bay of Bengal 304 seconds after lift-off.
"We saw the vehicle tumbling and losing control as the two steering engines may not have ignited," he said.
Radhakrishnan said it took the ISRO 18 years to develop the cryogenic engine technology at a cost of $80 million.
In the 1990s, the United States forced Russia to the scrap an Indo-Russian technology transfer deal on the grounds that India would use the technology to build missiles.
The Indian-made Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle, 50 meters long and weighing 416 tons, was meant to orbit G-Sat, a sophisticated 2.2-ton communications satellite.
NEW DELHI, April 15 (RIA Novosti)