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India successfully launches EDUSAT satellite for education

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, Sept 21, IRNA -- India`s Geo-synchronous Satellite Launch 
Vehicle (GSLV) successfully launched EDUSAT, the country`s first 
thematic satellite dedicated exclusively for educational services, 
into a Geo-synchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) from Satish Dhawan Space 
Centre SHAR (SDSC SHAR) in Sriharikota, in the southern Indian state 
of Andhra Pradesh, on Monday. 
According to a press release of the Indian Ministry of Science 
and Technology, a copy of which was received by IRNA early Tuesday, 
this is the first operational flight of GSLV (GSLV-F01) and the third 
in the GSLV series. 
EDUSAT is now orbiting the Earth in GTO with a perigee (nearest 
point to Earth) of 180 km and an apogee (farthest point to Earth) of 
35,985 km with an orbital inclination of 19.2 degress with respect to 
the equator. The orbital period now is 10.5 hours. 
The 414 ton, 49m-tall GSLV carrying the 1950-kg EDUSAT lifted off 
from Sriharikota at 4:01 p.m (local time). 
About seventeen minutes after the lift-off, EDUSAT was 
successfully placed in GTO. At 4.8 seconds before the countdown 
reached zero, the four liquid propellant stages, each carrying 40 tons
of hypergolic liquid propellants (UH25 and N2O4), were ignited. At 
count zero and after confirming the normal performance of all the four
strap-on motors, the mammoth 138 ton solid propellant`s first stage 
core motor was ignited and GSLV blazed into the sky. 
The major phases of the flight included the first stage burn-out 
at 104 seconds, the strap on burn-out at 150 seconds, ignition of the 
second stage at 150 seconds, heat shield separation at an altitude of 
115 km and 227 seconds into the flight, second stage burn-out at 288 
seconds, ignition of the 12.5 ton cryogenic stage at 304 seconds and 
shut down at 999 seconds after attaining the required velocity of 
10.2 km per second, the release said. 
EDUSAT was put into orbit at 1014 seconds about 5000 km away from 
Sriharikota. The separated cryogenic stage was subsequently 
re-oriented and passivated. 
According to the release, soon after its injection into GTO the 
two solar arrays of EDUSAT were automatically deployed. The deployment
of the arrays as well as the general condition of the satellite were 
monitored by the ground station of the ISRO Telemetry, Tracking and 
Command network (ISTRAC), located in the Indonesian island of Biak. 
The Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan in the southern 
Indian state of Karnataka has since taken control of EDUSAT for all 
its post-launch operations. 
Ground stations at Lake Cowichan (Canada), Fucino (Italy) and 
Beijing (China) are supporting the MCF in monitoring the condition of 
the satellite and its orbit-raising operations. 
In the coming days, EDUSAT`s orbit will be raised from its present
elliptical GTO to the final Geostationary Orbit (GSO) by firing the 
satellite`s Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) in stages. 
The satellite will be commissioned into service after completion 
of the orbit-raising operations, checking out all its transponders 
and positioning in its designated orbital slot of 74 degrees east 
longitude in the GSO. There it will be co-located with KALPANA-1 
and INSAT-3C. 
EDUSAT carries five Ku-bank transponders providing spot beams, 
one Ku-band transponder providing a national beam and six external 
C-band transponders with national coverage beams. It will join the 
INSAT system that has already got more than 130 transponders in 
C-band, extended C-band and Ku-band providing a variety of 
telecommunication and television broadcasting service. 
GSLV was declared operational after the successful developmental 
test flights conducted in April 2001 and May 2003. The vehicle was 
designed and developed by Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre in 
Thiruvananthapuram in the southern Indian state of Kerala. The 
inertial systems for the vehicle were development by the ISRO 
Intertial Systems Unit at Thiruvananthapuram. 
The Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC), also at 
Thiruvananthapuram, developed the Liquid propulsion stages for the 
strap-ons and the second stage of GSLV as well as the reaction 
control systems. 
While the Russian supplied cryogenic stage is used for third 
stage propulsion, the guidance and control of the stage has been 
implemented by ISRO. Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR is the launch 
centre for all the launch vehicles of ISRO. ISTRAC provides Telemetry,
Tracking and Command support, the release said. 
EDUSAT was developed by ISRO Satellite Centre, Bangalore. The 
payloads were developed by Space Applications Centre, Ahmedabad. 
Master Control Facility at Hassan is responsible for all post launch 
operations of the satellite. 
The successful launch of EDUSAT by the first operational flight of
GSLV further demonstrates its reliability and the end-to-end 
capability of the country to establish space systems to undertake 
large-scale application programs for the benefit of society. 
Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh congratulated scientists and 
engineers of the Department of Space and ISRO for the successful 
launch of the EDUSAT satellite Monday. 
According to a press release of the Indian Prime Minister`s 
Office, a copy of which was received by IRNA early Tuesday, Singh 
said: "I was very pleased to be informed of the first operational 
flight of the GSLV which marks an important landmark in the history 
of our launch vehicle program. 
"I am also happy to learn that the GSLV has successfully put into 
orbit our first satellite dedicated to education, EDUSAT, that would 
provide connectivity to educational institutions across the country." 
"This is indeed a proud moment for our indigenous space program," 
he added. 
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