Communication satellite GSAT-10 was placed in geosynchronous orbit on Wednesday and is a few days away from reaching its final slot, the Indian Space Research Organisation said in a release.
Scientists at ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan in Karnataka conducted the third and final orbit-raising manoeuvre on Wednesday morning. Subsequently, they deployed two solar panels to generate power for the satellite’s functions and the two dual gridded reflector antennas to establish a communication link with the ground station.
Launched on September 29 from Kourou in French Guiana, the satellite was initially placed in an interim elliptical orbit. Now, it has an orbit with a 35,734-km apogee (farthest point in the orbit from earth), a 35,585-km perigee (nearest point from earth) and an orbital period of approximately 23 hours 50 minutes. In the coming days, it would move from the current 70.18 degrees east longitude to the planned slot at 83 degrees east. Its communication and navigations payloads would be tested after that, the ISRO said.
