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Nothing Could Be Finer Than A Launch In… Sriharikota

August 3, 2007 / Mission Deployments & Manifests

Yet another successful launch… the birds are truly flying well of late. INSAT-4CR was inserted into orbit by the GLSV-FO4 with a lift-off occurring from the Satish Dhawan Space Center at Sriharikota at 6:21 p.m. on Sunday, September 2nd. Packing 12 Ku-band transponders, the satellite was injected into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) of 170 km perigee and 35,975 km apogee with an orbital inclination of 21.7 degrees with respect to the equator about 17.55 minutes after lift-off.

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Garmin Says Do Not Go Blindly Into That Dark, Dark Night… Or Bright, Bright Day, For That Matter

August 3, 2007 / Navigation & PNT

Knowing where to go, or having assistance in doing so, avoids numerous cuts and bruises and otherwise dented vehicles while scrambling for a map in the glove compartment, or pulling the map from your face with your car window open while driving… fortunately, there is the new Garmin nüvi 700 series satellite navigation system just released. The user interface is intuitive and offers an easy navigation experience.

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SpaceX Dragon Satisfies NASA Safety Panel

August 3, 2007 / Mission Deployments & Manifests

One down, two to go… the first of three review phases required by the Safety Review Panel (SRP) at NASA have been completed quite successfully by SpaceX for the mission of sending their Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station. Over four days at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, SpaceX engineers who are developing the Dragon spacecraft presented their Phase I plan for this voyage to ISS.

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ORBITS: News Briefs… ARABSAT, NEC, Colem Engineering, China, Colorado School of Mines, Eutelsat & ViaSat, Global VSAT Forum, Harmonic, Orion

August 3, 2007 / Satellite Communications

-- ARABSAT Has Friends Indeed -- NEC Knows Less Noise -- Birthday Brew And See What’s New… at IBC With Colem -- China Isn’t In To Spiky Hair Or Losers’ Tears -- You’ve Heard Of Web 2.0? How About Space 2.0? -- A Good Way Will Be Tooway -- Humanitarian Development Summit From GVF -- Harmony Reigns Fourfold At Harmonic With Award Shortlist -- Orion Won’t Have To Do It --

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Inclement Weather Upsets ISRO Launch Timetable

July 30, 2007 / Launch Schedule & Calendars

Adverse weather conditions are the cause of a one-day delay for the launch of INSAT-4CR by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). The homegrown Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) will now lift off on September 2nd, as severe thunderstorms over the last few days during the nighttime hours delayed pre-launch work by about 14 hours.

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A Block Off The Other Blocks Passes Tests

July 30, 2007 / Spacecraft & Payload Technology

Testing… testing… electrical power system, attitude determination and control system, telemetry, tracking and command and navigation payload… wow, they’re all working as they should and have been integrated properly into the satellite. That’s the word from the Global Positioning Wing who has successfully passed the Initial Integrated System Test on the first GPS Block IIF satellite at the Boeing Spacecraft Development Center in El Segundo, California.

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