Insat 3B to start function soon

BANGALORE, APRIL 8: India's third generation communication satellite INSAT 3B will be operationalised by the third week of this month, Ind...

BANGALORE, APRIL 8: India’s third generation communication satellite INSAT 3B will be operationalised by the third week of this month, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) announced here on Saturday.

The satellite launch by the latest and heaviest Ariane launcher from the Europoean spaceport Kourou on March 22 has reached its space home of 83 degrees east longitutude where it had been successfully colocated with INSAT 2E.

ISRO said the colocation was completed on April 4 and during the last three days quick look checks of

all the transponders onboard the satellite had been completed by the master control facility (MCF) at Hassan.

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Spacecraft controllers have also completed the collocation interference and detailed characterisation of the transponders were now being carried out before they were commissioned into service.

The satellite has since March 27 had been drifting slowly towards its final parking slot from 67.8 degrees east longitude. The same day the satellite’s two solar arrays and two antennas were also deployed to provide necessary power for the spacecraft.

Colocation of satellites in a single orbital slot enabled optimum use of available orbital slots and the limited frequency spectrum. To the users on ground, the colocated satellies appear as a single satellite with large capacity. The intereference between the colocated satellites was avoided by making the satellites transmit signals which were polarised orthogonal to that of the other colocated satellites.

Insat satellites now occupy four slots in the geostationary orbit — INSAT 2B and insat 2C are colcated at 93.5 deg east longitude, INSAT 1D And INSAT 2A were at 74 degrees east longitude and insat 2DT was at 55 degree east longitude besides the INSAT 2E and INSAT 3B.