National
Final countdown for INSAT-3C launch begins
By R.K. Radhakrishnan
CHENNAI, JAN. 22. The final countdown for the January 23 launch of the Ariane 4 rocket carrying the Indian communications satellite, the Indian National Satellite (INSAT-3C), has begun at the French Guyanese spaceport, Kourou.
This will be the first launch of Arianespace this year. The launch readiness review for the Arianespace flight took place in Kourou on Monday. The review verified and cleared the Ariane 42 L launch vehicle, its only payload, the INSAT-3C, the launch infrastructure at the Guyana Space Centre and the downrange tracking stations. Later, the go-ahead was given for the final countdown.
The launch window for the blast-off extends for an hour and six minutes from 10-53 p.m. GMT on Wednesday. The satellite is expected to be placed in the geo-synchronous transfer orbit 20 minutes and 52 seconds after the launch. The mission ends two minutes after a third stage avoidance operation.
Today, the filling of the first stage, second stage, liquid boosters fuel and oxidiser will take place. The third stage filling with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen will take place on the day of the launch. The current launch, Flight 147, uses a 42 L version from the Ariane-4 launcher stable.
INSAT-3C, designed and built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was ready as early as August. It was to have been shot into space with the new generation Ariane-5 launch vehicle.
But the failure of Arianespace's Flight 142 led to considerable delay in the launch. The space agency subsequently offered an exclusive Ariane-4 for launching the satellite. Again, though the launch was scheduled for January 16, Arianespace said the delay was to ``allow ISRO additional routine checks on the spacecraft in Kourou.''
The 2,792-kg satellite, to be positioned at 74 degree east longitude (over the Indian Ocean), will achieve an inclination of 4 degrees, have a perigee of 570 km and apogee of 35,786 km.
The tri-axis stabilised satellite carries 24 C-band transponders, six extended C-band transponders, two S-band broadcast satellite service transponders and mobile satellite service transponders. It has a 15.4 m span in orbit and a life of 15 years.
This is the eighth Indian satellite to the launched by Ariane, since the first launch of the APPLE satellite in 1981. Arianespace has carried out 108 launches so far, 13 of them on the Ariane-42 L rockets.
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