INSAT-3A, a multipurpose satellite built by

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO; ) is the national space agency of India, headquartered in Bengaluru. It operates under the Department of Space (DOS) which is directly overseen by the Prime Minister of India, while the Chairman ...

was launched by Ariane in April 2003. It is located at 93.5 degree East longitude. It is third satellite in

INSAT The Indian National Satellite System or INSAT, is a series of multipurpose geostationary satellites launched by ISRO to satisfy the telecommunications, broadcasting, meteorology, and search and rescue operations. Commissioned in 1983, INSAT i ...

-3 series after

INSAT-3B INSAT-3B is an Indian communications satellite which was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation and operated by Indian National Satellite System. Overview INSAT–3B is the first satellite built under INSAT–3 series of satellites to ...

& INSAT-3C. Built at a cost of $53 mn, it provides communication, weather, and search and rescue services.

Launch

INSAT 3A was launched by Ariane-5 launch vehicle of

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

on April 9, 2003, at 22.52 UTC from

Kourou Kourou () is a commune in French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France in South America. Kourou is famous for being the location of the Guiana Space Centre, the main spaceport of France and the European Space Agency (ESA). It i ...

French Guiana French Guiana ( or ; french: link=no, Guyane ; gcr, label=French Guianese Creole, Lagwiyann ) is an overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic ...

. It was placed into a Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), 30 minutes after the lift-off in 3-axis stabilized mode, with a

perigee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

(nearest point to earth) of 859 km and an

apogee An apsis (; ) is the farthest or nearest point in the orbit of a planetary body about its primary body. For example, the apsides of the Earth are called the aphelion and perihelion. General description There are two apsides in any ellip ...

(farthest point to earth) of 36,055 km and an inclination of 1.99 degrees with respect to the equator. Its co-passenger on its launch was GALAXI-XII of

PanAmSat The former PanAmSat Corporation founded in 1984 by Reynold (Rene) Anselmo, was a satellite service provider headquartered in Greenwich, Connecticut, United States. It operated a fleet of communications satellites used by the entertainment ind ...

. Its

Master Control Facility The Master Control Facility (MCF) is a facility set up by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the city of Hassan in the Indian state of Karnataka. Established in 1982, this facility is responsible for monitoring and controlling ge ...

(MCF) is located at

Hassan Hassan, Hasan, Hassane, Haasana, Hassaan, Asan, Hassun, Hasun, Hassen, Hasson or Hasani may refer to: People *Hassan (given name), Arabic given name and a list of people with that given name *Hassan (surname), Arabic, Jewish, Irish, and Scottis ...

, Karnataka (India). It is 3-axis body stabilised in orbit using momentum and reaction wheels, solar flaps,

magnetic torquers A magnetorquer or magnetic torquer (also known as a torque rod) is a satellite system for attitude control, detumbling, and stabilization built from electromagnetic coils. The magnetorquer creates a magnetic dipole that interfaces with an ambient ma ...

and eight 10 N and eight 22 N reaction control thrusters. Its propulsion system consists of 440 N Liquid Apogee Motor MON-3 (Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen) and MMH (MonoMethylHydrazine) for orbit raising. The satellite raised its orbit to GEO and arrived in the 93.5 degree East longitude orbital location. It joined INSAT-3B and INSAT-3C which were already in orbit operating from a similar orbital location.

Payload

Communication payload

The INSAT-3A communications payload consists of: * 12 Normal C-band transponders (9 channels provide expanded coverage from Middle East to South East Asia with an EIRP of 38 dBW, 3 channels provide India coverage with an EIRP of 36 dBW and 6 Extended C-band transponders provide India coverage with an EIRP of 36 dBW). * 6 upper extended C-band transponders having India beam coverage providing an EoC-EIRP of 37 dBW. * 6

Ku-band The Ku band () is the portion of the electromagnetic spectrum in the microwave range of frequencies from 12 to 18 gigahertz (GHz). The symbol is short for "K-under" (originally german: Kurz-unten), because it is the lower part of the ori ...

transponders provide India coverage with EIRP of 48 dBW.

Meteorological payload

The INSAT-3A meteorological payload consists of * A Very High Resolution Radiometer (VHRR) with imaging capacity in the visible (0.55-0.75 μm), thermal infrared (10.5-12.5 μm) and Water Vapour (5.7-7.1 μm) channels, provide 2x2 km, 8x8 km and 8x8 km ground resolutions respectively. * A CCD camera provides 1x1 km ground resolution, in the visible (0.63-0.69 μm), near infrared (0.77-0.86 μm) and shortwave infrared (1.55-1.70 μm) bands. * A Data Relay Transponder (DRT) having global receive coverage with a 400 MHz uplink and 4500 MHz downlink for relay of meteorological, hydrological and oceanographic data from unattended land and ocean-based automatic data collection-cum-transmission platforms. * A Satellite Aided Search and Rescue (SAS&R) SARP payload having global receive coverage with 406 MHz uplink and 4500 MHz downlink with India coverage, for relay of signals from distress beacons in sea, air or land. See also

Cospas-Sarsat The International Cospas-Sarsat Programme is a satellite-aided search and rescue (SAR) initiative. It is organized as a treaty-based, nonprofit, intergovernmental, humanitarian cooperative of 45 nations and agencies (see infobox). It is dedi ...

Services

* Telecommunications * Television broadcasting * Meteorological * Search and Rescue services

References

External links

ISRO website

Commercial arm of ISRO

{{Orbital launches in 2003 Spacecraft launched in 2003 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Weather satellites of India INSAT satellites 2003 in India