INSAT-3C is a multipurpose

satellite A satellite or artificial satellite is an object intentionally placed into orbit in outer space. Except for passive satellites, most satellites have an electricity generation system for equipment on board, such as solar panels or radioiso ...

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 o ...

and launched by

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 ...

in Jan 2002. INSAT-3C is the second satellite of the INSAT-3 series. All the transponders provide coverage over India. Insat-3C is controlled from the Master Control Facility at Hassan in

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO 15919, ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reor ...

. It will provide voice, video and digital data services to India and neighboring countries.

Launch

INSAT 3C was launched by the

Ariane 4 The Ariane 4 was a European expendable space launch system, developed by the '' Centre national d'études spatiales'' (CNES), the French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). It was manufactured by ArianeGroup and marketed by Ari ...

launch vehicle of

at 5:17 am IST 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 department/region and single territorial collectivity of France on the northern Atlantic coast of South America in the Guianas ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the sou ...

. INSAT-3C was placed into a Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO), 21 minutes after the lift-off, in a 3-axis stabilised mode, with a perigee of 570 km and an apogee of 35,920 km and an inclination of 4° with respect to the equator. After 4 maneuvers INSAT-3C has been put in its final three axis stabilised mode on February 1, 2002. The orbit rising maneuvers were carried out in phases by firing the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor(LAM). The satellite carried about 1.5 tonne of propellant ( MMH (MonoMethylHydrazine) and MON-3 (Mixed Oxides of Nitrogen)) for orbit raising operations as well as for station keeping and in-orbit attitude control.INSAT-3C like all of its predecessors in the INSAT series has a 3-axis body stabilized spacecraft using momentum/reaction wheels earth sensors, sun sensors, inertial reference unit and

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 ...

. It is equipped with unified bi-propellant thrusters.

Payload

INSAT-3C, carrying Fixed Satellite Services (FSS) transponders, Broadcast Satellite Services (BSS) transponders & Mobile Satellite Services (MSS) transponders is intended to continue the service of INSAT-2DT and INSAT-2C which were nearing their end to life besides enhancing and augmenting the INSAT system capacity. * 24 Normal C-band transponders providing an EIRP of 37 dBW * 6 Extended C-band transponders with EIRP of 37 dBW * 2

S-band The S band is a designation by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) for a part of the microwave radio band, band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequency, frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it c ...

transponders to provide BSS services with 42 dBW EIRP * 1 MSS transponder operating in S-band up-link and C-band downlink The satellite was designed for operations near 74 deg Longitude.

References

External links

ISRO website

Commercial arm of ISRO

{{Orbital launches in 2002 Spacecraft launched in 2002 Communications satellites in geostationary orbit Satellite television INSAT satellites 2002 in India