India Fails in 2nd Attempt to Launch Big Rocket

This country’s ambitious space program suffered another blow Wednesday when its second attempt to launch a big rocket into space failed minutes after blastoff.

India’s Space Commission chairman Udipi Ramchandra Rao told reporters the fault appeared to be in the first stage of the rocket. He said mission control lost contact 210 seconds after the 39-ton four-stage rocket lifted off from the southern island of Sriharikota.

Rao said the failure was caused by the “abnormal behavior” of the first stage of the rocket that was to carry a 300-pound weather satellite into orbit. But he added, “One has to suspect everything now, go back and look into everything.”

It was the failure of the first stage that doomed the first attempt to launch India’s biggest rocket in March, 1987. That plunged into the Bay of Bengal 164 seconds after blastoff.

India had high hopes that a successful launch Wednesday would help end its dependence on other countries to launch its satellites.

India relies heavily on communications satellites and weather satellites to monitor the annual monsoon which determines food production for its 800 million people.

The United States, the Soviet Union and the European Space Agency’s Ariane program have all launched satellites for India.

Failures in the U.S. space shuttle program and Ariane have also meant setbacks for Indian satellites.