By V. Jagannathan, IANS
Sriharikota : Trailing a plume of orange flame, a rocket lifted off from this launch pad in Andhra Pradesh Sunday evening to place into orbit India’s latest communications satellite that will boost direct-to-home (DTH) TV services.
The geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle GSLV-F04 lifted off at 6.20 p.m. on a cloudy Sunday evening after a series of delays caused by a technical glitch delayed the launch by 120 minutes.
Seventeen minutes into the flight, 5,000 km from the launch pad and somewhere over Indonesia, the rocket launched the INSAT-4CR satellite into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).
In the following days, scientists of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) who built the rocket and its payload will fire the satellite’s onboard motors to manoeuvre it into its parking slot in space.
The satellite carries 12 Ku-band 36 MHz bandwidth transponders that will be used for boosting DTH, digital newsgathering, and VSAT services. The satellite’s footprint covers the Indian mainland.
Congratulating the scientists on the successful launch, ISRO chief G. Madhavan Nair said: “The successful launch has proved the rocket is a dependable one.”
B.N. Suresh, director of the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here, echoed his words.
“The perfect launch has proved GSLV is a robust rocket.”
The launch, originally scheduled for 4.21 p.m. was put on hold 15 seconds prior to the lift off as the automatic launch sequence check done by the mission computers detected anomalies in the rocket’s parameters.
But for the 120-minute delay, it was a textbook launch as the rocket’s three-stage motors performed flawlessly, scientists said.
Also, the perfect injection of the satellite into orbit would enable it perform optimally during its 10-year lifespan, the scientists added.
INSAT-4CR is the third satellite in the INSAT-4 series. The first two – INSAT-4A and 4B were launched in 2005 and 2006 by European Ariane launch vehicle. The launch of INSAT-4C in July 2006 had ended in failure.