New Delhi May 09: The first orbit raising operation
of the GSAT-2, the experimental communication satellite placed
in an orbit yesterday by the country's own Geosynchronous
Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV-D2), was successfully carried out
this morning.
The operation was carried out by commanding the 1800-kg
satellite from master control facility (MCF) at Hassan in
Karnataka, an official release said.
Multiple orbit raising operations are planned on GSAT-2
to raise it from its current geo-synchronous transfer orbit
(GTO) to the geosynchronous orbit (GSO).
The GSLV-D2 had lifted off from the Satish Dhawan space
centre, Shar, Sriharikota, taking its second developmental
test flight. The vehicle successfully placed GSAT-2 in an
orbit of 180 km Perigee (nearest point to earth) and 36,000 km
Apogee (farthest point from earth).
The orbit raising operation was carried out by firing the
440 Newton liquid apogee motor on board the satellite for a
duration of 47 minutes 30 seconds.
With this, the orbital perigee of GSAT-2 is at 8,850 km
and the apogee remains at 36,000 km, it said adding the
orbital period of the satellite now is 13 hours 20 minutes.
Further manoeuvres are planned in the next few days. The
satellite was acquired by the ground station at Biak
immediately after separation from the launch vehicle
yesterday. After a visibility gap of 50 minutes, lake Cowichan
staiton in Canada acquired the satellite at 6.15 pm yesterday,
as planned.
The MCF, Hassan acquired the satellite signals at 4.00 am
this morning as per prediction. The health of the satellite
was normal, the release added.
Bureau Report
