ISRO's 'baby' safe in orbit

By Our Science Correspondent

BANGALORE, MARCH 22. After some anxious moments when it seemed that the launch might have to be postponed, the Ariane 5 launch vehicle lifted off at 4.58 a.m. today from Kourou in French Guyana. Thirty-five minutes later, Indian Space Research Organisation's `baby', the Insat-3B, was safely in orbit. Its co- passenger was WorldSpace's AsiaStar satellite which would provide digital audio and multimedia services over India and other parts of Asia.

The Insat-3B represented a major step in using space technology for grassroot level development, said the ISRO Chairman, Dr. K. Kasturirangan, soon after the launch. The satellite would also provide much needed augmentation of capacity for Very Small Aperture Terminals (VSATs) and a number of business houses were planning to start VSAT operations.

The Insat-3B is currently in an elliptical geostationary transfer orbit (GTO), 560 km by 35,770 km. The Insat-3B, which went out of radio visibility from Hassan at 3.36 p.m. today, would come back into radio contact at 2.36 a.m. tomorrow. The firing of the liquid engine is scheduled for 7.30 a.m. After the third firing, which is expected to take place on Sunday (March 26), the Insat- 3B would be parked alongside the Insat-2E at 83 degrees East longitude.

At lift-off, the Vulcain cryogenic engine of Ariane 5's main stage and its two giant solid propellant boosters together generate 1,500 tonnes of thrust, 14 times more than the combined thrust from a Boeing 747's four engines at full power. Some 28 minutes after lift-off, the AsiaStar was put into orbit, followed by the Insat-3B seven minutes later.

For the U.S.-based WorldSpace Corporation, AsiaStar is the second of its three satellites with which it intends to provide CD quality audio broadcasts and multimedia services to developing countries.

``AsiaStar would soon begin providing high-quality news, education, and entertainment to the people of Asia at an affordable cost,'' said Mr. Noah Samara, Chairman & CEO of WorldSpace, after the launch. In-orbit checkout of the AsiaStar would be completed by June when commercial operations were expected to begin, according to a company press release. For Arianespace too, the launch was an important watershed. Ariane 5, Europe's latest and most powerful launcher, is intended to carry two communication satellites into geostationary transfer orbit at each launch.

The Insat-3B, the first of the indigenously designed and built Insat-3 series, weighed 2,070 kg at launch, and carries 12 transponders operating in the extended C-band frequencies, three in the Ku-band as well as a transponder to support mobile services.

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