[3] Weighing around two tons, GSAT-4 carried a multi-channel, Ka-band, bent pipe and regenerative transponder, and a navigation payload in the C, L1, and L5 bands.

Designed to guide civil and military aircraft, GSAT-4 was to have employed several new technologies such as a bus management unit, miniaturised dynamically tuned gyros, lithium-ion battery, 70 volt bus for Ka-band travelling-wave tube amplifiers, and electric propulsion.

The rocket was 40.39 metres (132.5 ft) in length minus its payload fairing, and consisted of a solid-fuelled S139 first stage augmented by four L40H hypergolically fuelled strapons, burning UDMH as fuel and N2O4 as oxidiser.

Initial analysis of the data suggested that the vernier thrusters, used to provide attitude control, had failed to ignite due to engineering problems.

[3] According to ISRO, the mission failed after the turbopump that supplied fuel to the cryogenic engine had stopped working one second after ignition.