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
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“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
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—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)