Indian satellite placed in geo-stationary orbit

Tuesday, 15 April 2003, 19:30 IST
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BANGALORE: India's multipurpose INSAT-3A satellite has been comfortably placed in its geo-stationary orbit and is expected to settle in its space home by this weekend. The completion of the third and final stage of orbit raising operation Monday with the firing of the liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board the satellite for just three minutes 41 seconds meant that it would reach its orbital slot of 93.5 degree east longitude in the next five days, said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The firing of the LAM by the Master Control Facility (MCF) in Hassan, 250 km from here, has pushed the satellite from 860 km in the geo-stationary transfer orbit -- when it was launched Thursday from Kourou, French Guiana -- to its designated 36,000 km circular orbit, ISRO said in a statement. It also said the satellite has 505 kg of propellant remaining after the three orbit raising operations. The quantity of propellant is adequate to "arrest the drift (of two degrees) and park it at its orbital slot as well as maintain the satellite in its orbit and control its orientation during its designed life of 12 years". "The deployment of the solar array and the antenna is planned for tomorrow (Tuesday). All the subsystems and the satellite are functioning normally," ISRO said. The multipurpose satellite would provide telecommunication, television broadcasting, meteorological and search and rescue services. It carries 24 transponders -- 12 operating in the normal C-band frequency, six in extended C-band and six in the Ku-band.
Source: IANS
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