ITV

Tag: Eumetsat

  • Insat-4A ready for launch on 22 Dec; DD to telecast event live

    Insat-4A ready for launch on 22 Dec; DD to telecast event live

    MUMBAI: Preparations are in its final stages for the launch of the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) latest satellite, Insat-4A, on board the 169th flight of Ariane from Kourou, French Guyana. Doordarshan will telecast live the launch of Insat-4A, which will begin at 3:45 am on 22 December, 2005 on DD-National.

    As already reported on Indiantelevision.com, the launch window for the Ariane-5 G, carrying Insat-4A and its co-passenger, a meteorological satellite, MSG-2 of the European EUMETSAT, is fixed between 04.03 am and 4.31 am.

    Insat-4A is the first satellite to be launched in the Insat-4 series. It carries 12 high power Ku-band transponders (all leased out to the Tata-Sky DTH venture) to meet the requirement of direct-to-home (DTH) television services apart from 12 C-band transponders to augment the Insat capacity for communication and DTH services. Weighing 3080 kg at lift-off, Insat-4A is the heaviest satellite of ISRO so far.

    The Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka is in readiness to take control of Insat-4A soon after Ariane-5 places it in the Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) of about 620 km x 36,000 km.

    In the following days after launch, MCF will conduct operations like orbit raising manoeuvres to take the satellite into the final 36,000 km circular Geosynchronous Orbit.

    Deployment of solar arrays and antennas will be carried out before positioning the satellite in its designated orbital slot of 83 degree East longitude along with Insat-2E and Insat-3B. MCF will also carry out regular operations and control of the satellite during its service life.

  • Arianespace readies for 5 June Intelsat launch

    Arianespace readies for 5 June Intelsat launch

    Satellite launcher Arianespace is readying for its seventh launch of the year.

    The Intelsat 905 satellite to be carried aboard an Ariane 4, will be launched on 5 June from the company’s launch pad in French Guiana. The six launches undertaken in 2002 by Arianespace orbited seven primary satellites and two auxiliary payloads with a combined total of over 27,365 kg, an official release says.

    Satellites also have arrived for two future Ariane 5 missions – the Stellat 5 spacecraft for Flight 153 in late June, and the MSG-1 platform for Flight 155 in the second half of the year, the release adds. Stellat 5 is based on the Alcatel Space Industries Spacebus 3000 B3 platform and will have a launch mass of 4,100 kg. The satellite will be used by a joint-venture company called Stellat, which brings together France Telecom (with a 70 per cent share) with Europe*Star (30 per cent). Positioned at 5 deg. West longitude, Stellat 5 will support two-way broadband Internet access across much of Europe, and offer a connectivity matrix between Europe, the east coasts of North and South America, Africa, the Middle East and significant swaths of near Asia.

    On the other hand, the second-generation Meteosat metrological satellite, which is a spin-stabilized MSG-1 spacecraft, will provide multi-spectral imagery of the Earth’s surface and cloud systems at double the rate of first-generation Meteosat platforms, and will operate 12 spectral channels instead of three. MSG-1 was developed under European Space Agency responsibility and will be operated by Europe’s Eumetsat organization, according to Arianespace.