INSAT – 3E ORBIT RAISED FURTHER
In the second orbit
raising manoeuvre, conducted at 2.38 PM (IST) today, the 440 Newton
Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board INSAT-3E was fired for 36 minutes
by commanding the satellite from Master Control Facility (MCF),
Hassan. With this LAM firing, INSAT 3E perigee (closest point
to the earth) has been raised from 14,960 km to 33000 km. The
apogee (farthest point to earth) is at 35,750 km and the inclination
of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced
from 1.9 deg to the present 0.14 deg. INSAT-3E now has an orbital
period of 22 hour 40 minutes. The satellite will now be in the
continuous radio visibility of MCF- Hassan.
INSAT-3E was
launched by Ariane-5 of Arianespace on September 28, 2003 from
Kourou, French Guyana, and the first orbit raising manoeuvre was
carried out from MCF-Hassan yesterday morning (September 29, 2003).
The satellite came within the radio visibility of MCF this morning
at 8.41 am (IST), and all the necessary operations like earth
acquisition and gyro calibration were carried out before the second
orbit raising manoeuvre was started.
All systems on
board INSAT-3E are functioning normally. The third apogee motor
firing is planned in the next few days.
