Indian Students Successfully Track UK-Built Satellite

Bangalore: The recent launch of Indo-French satellite Saral witnessed Bangalore-based Nitte Meenakshi Institute of Technology cheer with joy as the students successfully tracked the UK-built STRand-1 satellite which passed over Bangalore around 90 minutes after the launch, reported Srinivas Laxman for TNN.

The satellite was the sixth and final one to be positioned in the orbit. The mission placed seven satellites in orbit in gaps of less than a minute, at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota.

Prof. Sankar Dasiga, co-ordinator of the space project at the institute, which had previously designed and developed Studsat-1 satellite in 2010 said "It was a great moment for the students when they tracked the satellite," as reported by TNN.

He added that the request to track the satellite came from UK’s Surrey Space Centre. He said "We received the tracking parameters from ISRO and fed it into our tracking system. We received the transmission as it passed over Bangalore at 7.30pm and it was there for 11 minutes."

The college principal HC Nagaraj said in the next few days, the Nitte Amateur Satellite Tracking Centre will obtain transmission from the satellite and the data will be shared with Surrey Space Centre.  Further, the tracking system which is in the institution is also designed by the students.

Saral, which is built by ISRO, will study the ocean surface and the surroundings using the French devices - ARgos and ALtila.