Article Posted on : - Sep 04, 2013

European rocket Ariane 5 had launched the GSAT-7 from French Guiana on August 30. An Arianespace photo

BANGALORE (BNS): India's first dedicated military satellite, GSAT-7, launched last week, has been successfully placed in the Geosynchronous Orbit with an altitude of about 36,000 km above Earth's surface.

The state-of-the-art satellite, which will provide a major boost to the country's maritime security, reached the orbit on Tuesday morning after successfully completing the last of the three orbit-raising manoeuvres commanded from ISRO's Master Control Facility at Hassan.

Later in the day, the communication antennae of GSAT-7, including the UHF Helix antenna, were deployed successfully. Following this, GSAT-7 was put in its final orbital configuration, stabilised on its three-axis by the momentum wheels, ISRO said in a statement.

The satellite would reach its assigned orbital slot of 74 degree East longitude in the Geostationary Orbit within the next 10 days. On September 14, 2013, the communication transponders in UHF, S, C and Ku bands are planned to be switched on, the space agency said.

The exclusive defence satellite, built by ISRO, was launched by the Ariane 5 launch vehicle from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana on August 30.

The satellite, carrying payloads operating in UHF, S, C and Ku bands, had a lift-off mass of 2625 kg.

The advanced communication satellite, according to ISRO, will be used to provide wide range of service spectrum from low bit rate voice to high bit rate data communication. Its payload is designed to provide communication capabilities to users over a wide oceanic region including the Indian land-mass.

The Indian Navy would be the user of the multi-band communication spacecraft. The frequency bands of GSAT-7 will help space-based marine communications which has coverage over India landmass as well as surrounding seas.