India’s advanced weather satellite INSAT-3D, launched in the early hours of July 26, 2013 from Kourou, French Guyana, has successfully been placed in Geosynchronous orbit after three orbit raising manoeuvres commanded from ISRO`s Master Control Facility at Hassan.
The Orbital parameters of INSAT-3D are:
• Apogee (farthest point to Earth) – 35,799 km
• Perigee (nearest point to Earth) – 35,469 km
• Inclination (of the orbit with respect to the equator)- 0.23 deg
• Orbital period – 23 hr 48 min
Though there was an anomalous behaviour of the satellite after the deployment of its solar panel, the Mission Operations Team of ISRO could immediately bring the Satellite into normalcy using the prescribed contingency procedures and then resume the orbit-raising operations.
INSAT-3D is now moving towards its final geostationary orbital location of 82 degree East longitude and on August 6, 2013 it will reach this destination. Subsequently, the two meteorological payloads (Imaging System, Atmospheric Sounder), as well as the two Transponders (designed for the Meteorological Data Relay and Satellite-aided Search and Rescue system) will be activated by August 8, 2013.