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Insat-3B successfully placed in intermediate orbit

The 44-newton thrust Liquid Apogee Motor on board the INSAT-3B was successfully fired as scheduled on Thursday morning, placing the satellite in its first intermediate orbit.

An Indian Space Research Organisation release issued on Thursday morning said the LAM was fired for a duration of 64 minutes and 24 seconds. About 534 kg of propellant on board the satellite -- mono methyl hydrazine (MMH) and mixed oxides of nitrogen (MON-3) -- was consumed in the firing exactly as planned.

The release further said the major orbit manoeuvre operation conducted from the INSAT Master Control Facility at Hassan, has raised the perigee of the satellite from 560 km at the time of its injection to about 14,214 km. The apogee altitude remains the same as at the time of injection. The inclination of the orbit has been reduced from seven degrees at the time of injection to 1.8 degrees by today's firing of LAM. The orbital period was now about 15:32 hours.

INSAT-3b was launched on Wednesday by Ariane-505 launch vehicle from Kourou in French Guyana. Soon after the launch, the satellite's health was monitored in terms of power generation, thermal conditions, orientation control and other parameters, all of which were normal.

Before the satellite went out of radio visibility of MCF at 1536 hrs IST on Wednesday, the satellite had been manoeuvred for apogee motor firing orientation.

The MCF reacquired the signal from the satellite this morning at 0236 hrs IST as expected and the earth acquisition and gyro calibration were completed before the AMF-1 was commenced. The satellite would go out of radio visibility of MCF at 1408 hrs IST on Thursday afternoon and again come within its visibility at about 0810 hrs IST on Friday.

ISRO sources said the network of ground stations is determining the precise orbit where the satellite would be finally placed. The second orbit raising operation was scheduled at about 1430 hrs IST on March 24. All the systems on board INSAT-3B were functioning normally, according to ISRO.

UNI

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