'INSAT-4CR will be commissioned in 1month'
Bangalore,
Sep
4:
Indian
communication
satellite
INSAT-4CR,
launched
by
the
Indian
Space
Research
Organisation
(ISRO)
and
lifted
off
from
the
Satish
Dhawan
Spaceport
at
Sriharikota
in
Andhra
Pradesh
on
Sunday
by
a
Geosychronous
Satellite
Launch
Vehicle
(GSLV-FO4),
will
be
commissioned
in
a
month's
time,
ISRO
Chairman
G
Madhavan
Nair
said
today.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the second meeting of the International Committee on Global Navigation Satellite Systems (ICG) here, he said, ''Tomorrow we will carry out the first orbit rising process and within a month the satellite will be operational.'' The first orbit raising manoeuvre was successfully carried out by firing 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor on board the satellite for a duration of 27 minutes by commanding the satellite from Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka, he said.
The satellite had been put to a perigee (nearest point to earth) at 2,983 km and apogee (the farthest point to earth) to 30,702 km.
The inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane had been reduced to 11.1 degree, Mr Nair said.
Mr Madhavan Nair said India will have its own satellite navigation system at a cost of Rs 1600 crore by 2012. The system would be a constellation of seven satellites in Geostationary orbit. He said ''"ISRO has evolved an unique platform in which Geo stationary orbit will be continuously visible from our region. We are in the process of establishing Indian Regional Navigation System (IRNS) which will have a constellation of seven satellites. Though to have a global coverage it takes a 24 satellite system at 20,000 km from earth, our platform will have only seven," he said.
He said that the design process had almost been completed and work on the prototype model would be initiated soon. "The first launch will take place in 2010 and by 2012 we should be able to complete project," he said.
The satellites in IRNS would be in one to 1.5 tonne class and launched from PSLV as it was cost effective compared to GSLV. "We want to make the satellites for this constellation as small as possible. Ideally these satellites should be in 1200 kg range and we would know abo+ut the exact size in a year's time," he said.
He said the IRNS system would be of great use in any place and any time and all the country's GPS needs would be met by our IRNS.
The GPS system was already in use in cars, trains and aircraft. It can provide most accurate timing signal all over the country and used in survey of land, preparation of maps, in case disaster the location can be zeroed in very fast and message sent out to take up rescue operations.
On the other launches coming up, Mr Nair said the next launch would be of Cartosat-2A, possibly by the end of the year, and the indigenous Cryogenic Stage that would be flying on the next GSLV.
On the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology, which the ISRO is helping setting up in Tiruvanantapuram, he said on September 14 the classes of the first batch of 150 students would begin. "We are beginning with graduate level courses. Soon we will be starting courses in the PG level," he said.
On the cooperation with Russians on development of GLONASS system, he said India's cooperation with Russians had been very strong. "We are having continuous dialogue with Russians. Soon we will be establishing a working module. Already an agreement is in place we have to start the execution of work by next year," he said. Mr Nair said ISRO would implement its project of the dedicated high bandwidth transfer of data technology for use of telecommunication by next year. "The satellite with KA band in high bandwidth will fly with the next GSLV," he said.
UNI