INSAT 4CR in intermediate orbit

Bangalore, Sep 5: Indian communication satellite INSAT 4CR was today successfully pushed into an intermediate orbit enroute to its space home in Geostationary orbit by Scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation at the Master Control Facility in Hassan in Karnataka.

In the early hours of today the Satellite controllers commanded firing of the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board the satellite for a period of 3140 seconds in the third orbit raising manoevure.

ISRO in a release here said all systems on board the satellite are functioning normally. With the third manoeuvre, INSAT 4CR perigee had been raised to 15,994 km. The apogee is at 35,385 km and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced from 11.1 deg to 3.24 deg now.

The satellite was currently orbiting the earth once in15 hours 52 minutes. The orbital parameters achieved were as planned.

INSAT-4CR was successfully launched by GSLV-F04 on September 2, 2007 from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota.

Subsequently, MCF acquired the signals from the satellite and conducted initial phase operations on INSAT-4CR.

The next Orbit Raising Manoeuvre is planned around 12:30 pm IST on September 6, 2007, the release said.

UNI