INSAT-3C is a multipurpose

satellite A satellite or an artificial satellite is an object, typically a spacecraft, placed into orbit around a celestial body. They have a variety of uses, including communication relay, weather forecasting, navigation ( GPS), broadcasting, scient ...

built by

ISRO The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), overseen by the Prime Minister o ...

and launched by

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

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 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 ...

at Hassan in

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. 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 rocket, expendable launch vehicle in the Ariane (rocket family), Ariane family, developed by the (CNES), the Government of France, French space agency, for the European Space Agency (ESA). The manufacturi ...

launch vehicle of

at 5:17 am IST from Kourou,

French Guiana French Guiana, or Guyane in French, is an Overseas departments and regions of France, overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west ...

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

. 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 sensor A Sun sensor is a navigational instrument used by spacecraft to detect the position of the Sun. Sun sensors are used for Spacecraft attitude control, attitude control, solar array pointing, gyroscope, gyro updating, and safe mode (spacecraft), fai ...

s, 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 m ...

. 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 band of the electromagnetic spectrum covering frequencies from 2 to 4 gigahertz (GHz). Thus it crosses the convention ...

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