HYLAS (Highly Adaptable Satellite), which was launched successfully on November 27 by the European Ariane-5 V198 launch vehicle, has reached the geostationary orbit, an ISRO press release has said.
HYLAS, the satellite jointly built by ISRO/Antrix and EADS/Astrium of Europe for Advent communications of U.K. was initially injected into an elliptical Geosynchronous Transfer Orbit (GTO) with a perigee of 250 km, apogee of 35,906 km and inclination of 1.99 degree.
ISRO’s Master Control Facility at Hassan immediately took over the control and command operations of the satellite. The perigee was raised from 250 km to 35,521 km by firing the satellite's Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) of 432 Newton thrust level in three phases on Nov 28th (for 1 hour 19 minutes), on November 29th (for 30 minutes) and on November 30 (for about 4 minutes).
The HYLAS Satellite, presently in an orbit of 35,521 km (perigee) x 35,800 km (apogee) is in good health and in continuous radio-visibility from Hassan. One of its communication antennas has also been deployed successfully.
