History
The ASLV made four launches, of which one was successful, two failed to achieve orbit, and a fourth achieved a lower than planned orbit which decayed quickly. The type made its maiden flight on 24 March 1987, and its final flight on 4 May 1994.
Three successive failures plunged the project into a crisis. ISRO scientist had to confront new technological challenges and one of the important design changes was the addition of the 2 strap on boosters attached to either side of the first stage. Strap on separation, bulbous heat shield, "closed loop" guidance system as opposed to the "open loop" guidance system of the SLV-3 and heat shield management and separation had to be adapted by the scientists. However, all the problems and new technological challenges were overcome with ISRO's customary resolve and zeal, and the important ASLV program crossed an important rubicon.
Read more about this topic: Augmented Satellite Launch Vehicle
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of work has been, in part, the history of the worker’s body. Production depended on what the body could accomplish with strength and skill. Techniques that improve output have been driven by a general desire to decrease the pain of labor as well as by employers’ intentions to escape dependency upon that knowledge which only the sentient laboring body could provide.”
—Shoshana Zuboff (b. 1951)
“Both place and time were changed, and I dwelt nearer to those parts of the universe and to those eras in history which had most attracted me.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The history of the genesis or the old mythology repeats itself in the experience of every child. He too is a demon or god thrown into a particular chaos, where he strives ever to lead things from disorder into order.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)