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ISRO GSLV-F08/GSAT-6A Mission: March29, 2018

  • India's New Satellite To Boost Armed Forces, Help Moon Mission: 10 Facts
All India Reported by Pallava Bagla, Edited by Anindita Sanyal
The 2,066 kg GSAT-6A satellite, built by space agency ISRO, which cost around Rs. 270 crore, will be able to send and receive signals from hand-held devices.
Updated : March 29, 2018 20:45 IST

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India's very powerful, home-made communications satellite shot off into the blue sky today, leaving a smoky trail, on the back of the heavyweight GSLV rocket. The successful launch by the scientists of space agency ISRO drew praise from Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The 2066-ton satellite, built at a cost of Rs. 270 crore, will be able to send and receive signals from hand-held devices. It is expected to be particularly useful for security forces stationed in the remotest corners of the country. The rocket also has a special feature -- a new engine, which, if successful, will be crucial for India's second Moon mission.
Here are the top 10 updates in the GSAT-6A launch:

  1. Congratulating the scientists, PM Narendra Modi tweeted, "GSAT-6A, a communication satellite, will provide new possibilities for mobile applications. Proud of @ISRO for taking the nation towards new heights and a brighter future".
  2. The GSAT-6A carries one of the largest antennas that has been built by ISRO, said its former chairman Kiran Kumar. The antenna, which has a diameter of 6 meters, will open up like an umbrella once the satellite is in orbit.
  3. The huge size of the antenna gives it more power, which ensures that a two-way exchange of data, voice or video, can be carried out through small hand-held devices from any corner of the country.
  4. The hand-held devices are still being fine-tuned by the defence development agency DRDO. The DRDO hopes to manufacture a number of such devices, which will be given to security personnel deployed in remote areas.
  5. Around 400 scientists and engineers were called in to help with the launch, which took place from Sriharikota's Satish Dhawan Space Center, located on the coast near Chennai.
  6. The GSLV rocket, which will carry up the communications satellite, was dubbed the "Naughty Boy" by ISRO scientists. The 416-plus ton rocket has had a patchy record, with four of its 12 flights ending in failure.
  7. The Vikas engine, for which scientists have high hopes, was named after Vikram Sarabhai, who was considered the father of India's space programme. Vikas is an acronym for Vikram Ambalal Sarabhai.
  8. For this journey, the engine, which works on liquid propellants, was used in the second stage to give the rocket a higher thrust.
  9. This was the first time all three operational rockets of ISRO were on the launch pad in a state of readiness. In the middle of April, ISRO hopes to launch a PSLV with a navigation satellite.
  10. In future, the Vikas engine may become the mainstay of Indian rockets. Depending on its performance, it could even be deployed when India hoists the Chandrayaan-2 mission.
 
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Only thing that is missing for higher payload is semicryogenic engine to replace Vikas engine.
It should be a matter of a year or two, now that we have tamed different cryogenic stage in gslv2 and gslv3.
Anyone update on semicryogenic stage which has been on r&d for some years now.
 
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Mar 30, 2018
The first orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A Satellite has been successfully carried out by LAM Engine firing for 2188 sec from 09:22hr IST on March 30, 2018.
Orbit Determination results from this LAM firing are:

  • apogee X perigee height was changed to 36412 km X 5054 km.
  • Inclination is 11.93 deg.
  • Orbital period is 12hr 45min.
 
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Apr 01, 2018
Status Update of GSAT-6A
The second orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A satellite has been successfully carried out by LAM Engine firing for about 53 minutes on March 31, 2018 in the morning.

After the successful long duration firings, when the satellite was on course to normal operating configuration for the third and the final firing, scheduled for April 1, 2018, communication from the satellite was lost.

Efforts are underway to establish the link with the satellite.
 
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http://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/sc...ith-gsat-6a/article23406393.ece?homepage=true

Spacecraft built for 10-year mission goes silent on Day 2, recovery efforts are on

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) confirmed on Sunday afternoon that communication with GSAT-6A, the country's newest communication satellite, was lost after the second firing of the on-board engine, which was performed on Saturday.

“Efforts are under way to establish the link with the satellite," a statement from the space agency said.

News started creeping around forenoon on Saturday that a power glitch showed up while engineers were doing the satellite's second orbit manoeuvre from the Master Control Facility (MCF) in Hassan. It seems that the GSAT-6A was not sending back signals. The top brass, including Chairman K. Sivan, ISRO Satellite Centre (ISAC) and MCF officials went into a huddle at the ISRO headquarters and later at the MCF.

One person familiar with satellite technologies said spacecraft have redundancies or backups; the MCF worked on it overnight on Saturday.

The 2,000 kg-plus GSAT-6A was launched on the indigenous GSLV rocket on March 29 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota. It was placed in an initial elliptical orbit 169.4 km x 36,692 km.

The MCF picked up its control within minutes. From March 30, it started routinely correcting the orbit into a circular one — a critical but frequently done exercise that lasts for about a week to ten days.

After the first on-board motor firing for about 36 minutes on Friday morning, the ISRO announced that the satellite's orbit became 36,412 km X 5,054 km with an inclination of 11.93 degrees to the Equator; it was circling the Earth almost every 13 hours.

Built to last ten years in space, GSAT-6A came with a technology that combines a large unfurlable S-band antenna in space and small, hand-held ground terminals highly suited for the military in remote area operations. It was expected to join its three-year-old sibling, GSAT-6, in the next few weeks.

On August 31 last year, the ISRO lost navigation satellite IRNSS-1H in a freak manner.

One of its biggest losses in communication fleet was the INSAT-2D, which died in its orbit in October 1997, just four months into work.
 
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BENGALURU: In what is a disappointment for both citizens and the armed forces of the country, the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) on Saturday lost contact with the GSAT-6A + , India’s most powerful communication satellite, in less than 48 hours after it launched it on Thursday. While Isro says it is trying re-establish link, sources attributed the failure to a power system failure.


After the textbook launch onboard GSLV-F08 on Thursday, Isro successfully completed the first orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A Satellite at 9.22am on Friday, which saw the satellite changing its closest and farthest point from earth besides changing its inclination.

The LAM (liquid apogee motor) engine worked perfectly fine, and the first orbit raising manoeuvre was a success, and the satellite reached the right spot as intended, a source said.

The second orbit raising manoeuvre was scheduled for 10.51am on Saturday, and well-placed source said that the operation was also completed with a successful firing of the LAM engine. The agency received data from the satellite for about four minutes after the second orbit raising operation, after which the it went blank, a source said.

Initial analysis points to a power system failure, but Isro has not officially confirmed anything.

After remaining incommunicado the whole of Saturday, Isro, on Sunday said: “The second orbit raising operation of GSAT-6A satellite + has been successfully carried out by LAM Engine firing for about 53 minutes on March 31, 2018 in the morning. After the successful long duration firings, when the satellite was on course to normal operating configuration for the third and the final firing, scheduled for April 1, 2018, communication from the satellite was lost. Efforts are underway to establish the link with the satellite.”

On Saturday, the agency’s new chairman K Sivan held a marathon meeting with senior scientists through a teleconference, as already reported by TOI.

This was Isro’s first launch after Sivan took charge, even as the mission itself was conceived and developed before his time.

GSAT-6A, is a high power communication satellite which was to have a mission life of about 10 years. It was to provide mobile communication for India with multi-band coverage facility—five beams in S-band and one beam in C-band.

The satellite has a six-metre wide antenna, the biggest used by an Isro communication satellite so far, meant for the S-band communication. This was to enable the satellite to provide mobile communication for the country through handheld ground terminals, which was not possible earlier as smaller antennas meant larger ground stations. The satellite was also to provide with communication facilities for the armed forces.

TOI attempted to get official confirmations from the Isro headquarters, Isro chairman Sivan, Isro Satellite Centre, and the agency’s communications team and other senior scientists. However, none of them denied or confirmed the development, while some scientists who were not directly involved with the project claimed ignorance.

Isro did not put out an official communication after the second orbit raising operation, as is the practice. The agency updates every manoeuvre of the satellite until it reaches its final destination and then gives updates on the health and other activities.



https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...on-satellite-gsat-6a/articleshow/63565033.cms
 
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