Article Posted on : - May 23, 2011

India's Communication Satellite GSAT-8

NEW DELHI (BNS): The first critical orbit-raising manoeuvre of GSAT-8 was successfully conducted on Sunday, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said.

The manoeuvre was done with the firing of the 440 Newton Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) on board GSAT-8 for 95 minutes by commanding the satellite from ISRO's Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in Karnataka.

With this LAM operation, GSAT-8 perigee has been raised to 15,786 km. The apogee is at 35,768 km and the inclination of the orbit with respect to the equatorial plane has been reduced from 2.5 deg at the time of entering into orbit to 0.5 deg now. The present orbital period is 15 hours 56 minutes, ISRO said.

India's latest communication satellite GSAT-8 was Saturday launched by Arianespace from Kourou in French Guiana to give a boost to direct-to-home services in the country.

The launch vehicle placed GSAT-8 in the intended Gesynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with a perigee (closest point to earth) of 258 km and apogee (farthest point to earth) of 35,861 km. All systems onboard the satellite is functioning normally, ISRO said.