The Hindu Business Line : INSAT-4CR placed in orbit

Take-off: The GSLV-F04 lifting off from the launch pad at Sriharikota on Sunday after 27 hours of countdown. The space vehicle will put into orbit the ISRO’s latest communication satellite, INSAT-4CR.

M. Ramesh

Sriharikota, Sept 2 The GSLV-F04 rocket on Sunday bid goodbye to Planet Earth from the Sriharikota launch station and, successfully this time, put its cargo, the INSAT-4CR, into the designated slot in space, providing Indian telecom operators with another 12 transponders and relief to the scientists of Indian Space Research Organisation.

Coming after last year’s failed launch of a GSLV-class rocket, Sunday’s launch did give scientists some anxious moments when the rocket failed to lift-off at the scheduled launch time of 4.21 p.m.

But it did soar gallantly into the cloudy evening skies at 6.20 p.m. —the rescheduled launch time — its red-orange plume of fire lighting the low clouds like some celestial fireworks.

Seventeen minutes later, having jettisoned two lower stages into the sea, the uppermost stage of the rocket ejected the satellite 170 km above the earth. By Monday evening the satellite will reach its designated orbit 36,000 km above earth. If all goes well, it will circle the earth once every day for the next 10 years, beaming back telecom signals from uplink stations to all homes in India.

The GSLVs (Geo synchronous Satellite Launch Vehicles) are the biggest class of Indian rockets, standing 49 metres tall and weighing 415 tonnes. The 2,130-kg INSAT-4CR is the heaviest satellite to be launched by an Indian rocket, carries 12 Ku band transponders and a Ku-band beacon to aid satellite-based tracking.

The satellite is designed to provide Direct-To-Home television services, digital satellite news gathering and to serve other users for VSAT and high bit-rate data transmissions. The satellite is also a replacement for the INSAT-4C, which was lost due to the failure of the GSLV-F02 in June 2006.

The cost of the rocket was Rs 160 crore and the cost of satellite Rs 150 crore. The ISRO Chairman, Mr G. Madhavan Nair, said his “dream” was to capture 5-10 per cent of the global market for satellite launches over the next five years.

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