Sep 07, 2015 (IANS)

Chennai, India - The Indian space agency on Sunday said it had successfully positioned the country's military communication satellite GSAT-6 in its orbital slot.

According to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), GSAT 6 has been successfully positioned in its orbital slot of 83 degrees East and co-located with INSAT 4A, GSAT 12, GAAT 10 and IRNSS1C on Sunday morning, after carrying out four drift arresting manoeuvres.

The satellite was launched by India's heavy rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle-Mark II (GSLV) and put into geo transfer orbit (GTO) on August 27.

One of the advanced features of GSAT-6 satellite is its antenna - the largest satellite antenna realised by ISRO and utilised for five spot beams over the Indian mainland, which exploit the frequency reuse scheme to increase frequency spectrum utilisation efficiency.

The satellite provides communication through five spot beams in S-band and a national beam in C-band for strategic users.

The satellite's life expectancy is nine years.

ISRO is planning to launch 2,200 kg INSAT-3DR meteorological satellite next July with its GSLV rocket.

According to ISRO, with two back-to-back successful missions carrying indigenous cryogenic stage, the GSLV has matured into a reliable launch vehicle and has paved the way for its future operational missions, providing India self-sufficiency in launching higher capacity satellites into geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO).

The 2016 July launch would be followed by the GSAT-9 satellite launch in May 2017.

The prestigious Chandrayaan-2 Mission is designated to be launched by GSLV in 2017-18 time frame.

According to ISRO, the GSLV is well on its way towards international and commercial operations.

Work is already in progress on the joint effort with NASA for the launch of NISAR satellite into a polar orbit by 2020-21. This mission will demonstrate the versatility of the GSLV for launch into various orbits.

While technical criticalities of the complex GSLV system have been overcome, challenges are being taken up for improving the payload capability from the present 2,117 kg to the design target of 2500 kg, ISRO said.

Detailed studies are in progress, addressing the various ways of achieving this target, said the Indian space agency.

India’s ISRO has successfully carried out the first suborbital test launch of India’s next-generation GSLV Mk III space launcher, which carried a 3,775 kg test payload. (ISRO photo)

Dec 19, 2014 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: India Space Research Organisation; issued Dec 18, 2014)

First Experimental Flight of India's Next Generation Launch Vehicle GSLV Mk-III Successful

The first experimental flight (GSLV Mk-III X/CARE) of India's next generation launch vehicle GSLV Mk-III was successfully conducted today (December 18, 2014) morning from Satish Dhawan Space Centre SHAR, Sriharikota. Also known as LVM3-X/CARE, this suborbital experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight and thus carried a passive (non-functional) cryogenic upper stage.

The mission began with the launch of GSLV Mk-III at 9:30 am IST from the Second Launch Pad as scheduled and about five and a half minutes later, carried its payload - the 3775 kg Crew Module Atmospheric Re-entry Experiment (CARE) - to the intended height of 126 km. Following this, CARE separated from the upper stage of GSLV Mk-III and re-entered the atmosphere and safely landed over Bay of Bengal with the help of its parachutes about 20 minutes 43 seconds after lift-off.

Two massive S-200 solid strap-on boosters, each carrying 207 tons of solid propellants, ignited at vehicle lift-off and after functioning normally, separated 153.5 seconds later. L110 liquid stage ignited 120 seconds after lift-off, while S200s were still functioning, and carried forward for the next 204.6 seconds.

CARE separated from the passive C25 cryogenic upper stage of GSLV Mk-III 330.8 seconds after lift-off and began its guided descent for atmospheric re-entry.

After the successful re-entry phase, CARE module's parachutes opened, following which it gently landed over Andaman Sea about 1600 km from Sriharikota, there by successfully concluding the GSLV Mk-III X/CARE mission.

With today's successful GSLV Mk-III X / CARE mission, the vehicle has moved a step closer to its first developmental flight with the functional C25 cryogenic upper stage.

The navigational system, developed by India, is designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line.

Apr 02, 2014 Spacewar.com (IANS)

Ahmedabad, India - India is expected to have its own satellite navigation system by the first quarter of 2015 with four of its satellites in space, said an official of Indian space agency. India is expected to have its own satellite navigation system by the first quarter of 2015 with four of its satellites in space, said an official of Indian space agency.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will be launching the second navigational satellite badged Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System-1B (IRNSS-1B) April 4 evening at 5.14 p.m.

The 1,432 kg satellite will be carried by Indian rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC)-SHAR director M.Y.S.Prasad told IANS: "Though the IRNSS is a seven satellite system, it could be made operational with four satellites."

According to him, even if a navigation system has more than four satellites, the final precise data is picked from four satellites.

The IRNSS-1B satellite with a design life span of 10 years will be part of the seven-satellite Indian regional navigational system. The first navigational satellite IRNSS-1A was launched in July 2013.

The navigational system, developed by India, is designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line.

The system is similar to the global positioning system of the US, Glonass of Russia, Galileo of Europe, China's Beidou or the Japanese Quasi Zenith Satellite System.

The system will be used for terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation, disaster management, vehicle tracking and fleet management, integration with mobile phones, mapping and geodetic data capture and others.

While the ISRO is silent on the navigation system's strategic application, it is clear that the IRNSS will be used for defence purposes as well.

According to the ISRO, the IRNSS-IB has been realised within seven months of the launch of the IRNSS-1A.

Meanwhile Indian space agency officials are getting ready for the 58 and half hour launch countdown slated to begin April 2 around 6.45 a.m.

"Normally 53 hour countdown is sufficient. But we have decided to an extended countdown so that some break time could be given for the officials," Prasad said.

2 July 2013 aerospace-technology.com

The Indian Space Research Organisation's (ISRO) polar satellite launch vehicle (PSLV) has launched the first Indian regional navigation satellite system (IRNSS) today from Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota.

This launch, which was designated as flight number C22, marks the 23rd consecutively successful mission of PSLV.

The mission was carried out on PSLV-XL configuration, which was earlier used to launch Chandrayaan-1, GSAT-12 and RISAT-1 satellites.

The PSLV-C22 lifted off from the first launch-pad at 11.41pm IST yesterday with the firing of the first stage and four strap-on motors of the launch vehicle.

The flight events including stage and strap-on ignitions, heat-shield separation, stage and strap-on separations and satellite injection were successfully carried out as planned.

After a flight of 20 minutes 17 seconds, the IRNSS-1A Satellite was placed into the intended elliptical orbit of 282.46km x 20,625.37km and the solar panels were deployed automatically.

"The launch marks the 23rd consecutively successful mission of PSLV."

Weighing 3141lb, IRNSS-1A is the first of the seven satellites in the space segment of the IRNSS, an independent regional navigation satellite system designed to provide position information in the Indian region and 1,500km around the Indian mainland.

IRNSS will provide two types of service, with standard positioning services (SPS), which will be provided to all users, and restricted services (RS) that will be provided to authorised users only.

ISRO Master Control Facility at Hassan, Karnataka, assumed control of the satellite, and over the coming days, five orbit manoeuvres will be conducted from the facility in order to position it in its geosynchronous circular orbit at 55°E longitude.

The overall IRNSS constellation of seven satellites is expected to be complete by 2015-2016.

A number of ground stations, which will be responsible for the generation and transmission of navigation parameters, satellite control, satellite ranging and monitoring, have been established in more than 15 locations across the country.