According to the Hindustan Times online site, seven geo-stationary satellites are going to be built by India. According to India’s Secretary in the Department of Space (and the Chairman of Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO)), G. Madhavan Nair, the design of the satellites is more or less complete and they are in the process of building the first prototype model.
The Bangalore-HQ’d ISRO is involved in the process of establishing the Indian Regional Navigation System based on seven proposed satellites over India. Nair said, “We need only a minimum number of satellites as we have evolved a unique concept by which if you put it in geostationary orbit, it will be continuously visible from our region. The first launch should occur in 2010, with all satellites completed by 2012.” The home-built Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) will launch the satellites.
The ISRO has also reported the first maneuver to raise the orbit of the recently launched (last Sunday) INSAT-4C R was performed by firing the liquid apogee motor (LAM) on board the satellite. This action lasted for 27 minutes with the command given from the ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka. The perigee (the nearest point to Earth) has now been raised to 2,983 km and the apogee (the furthest point from Earth) to 31, 702 km. To achieve final geosynchronous circular orbit of 36,000 km, the LAM will be fired several times in the coming days. Official’s state it will take more than a month before the satellite is fully operational. Already 10 INSATS are in service.—Bangalore, India
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