Final preparations on for launch of INSAT-4B

The launch of Ariane-5, which will carry India's indigenously-built 3,025 kg INSAT-4B geostationary satellite and Skynet 5A of EADS Astrium, is set for between 3.55 am and 4.28 am on Sunday.

INSAT-4B has 12 high power Ku-band and 12 C-band transponders to augment direct-to-home television services as well as other communication and television services. The satellite, which is identical to INSAT-4A, is equipped with a 440-Newton liquid apogee motor that will raise it to geostationary orbit after its deployment by Ariane-5.

The Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka is ready to take control of INSAT-4B after Ariane-5 places it in geosynchronous transfer orbit of 250 km X 35,886 km, Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation said in a statement on Thursday.

"In the following days after launch, MCF will conduct orbit-raising maneuvers to take the satellite into the final 36,000 km circular geosynchronous orbit followed by deployment of solar arrays and antennas," the statement said. INSAT-4B will be positioned at 93.5 degree East longitude along with INSAT-3A, it said.